MPL is going to lay off 60% of its indian workforce. This decision was made following the ban on real money games (RMG) in India.
Sai Srinivasan Kiran, the cofounder of Mobile Premier League (MPL), informed their employees through an email. MPL has an employee count of 500-600 in India. After the layoffs, 300-360 people are expected to lose their jobs.
“We are committed to providing those impacted with every possible support during this transition period … India accounted for 50% of M-League’s revenues, and this change would mean that we would no longer be making any revenue from India in the near future,” MPL CEO Srinivas mails their employees.
The decision is MPL’s way to deal with the ban on RMG. It came just about 9 days after the government passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Games Bill, 2025.
The Indian entity of MPL reported an operating revenue of INR 879.5 crore in the FY24. This marks an 8% rise from INR 814.2 crore in the previous fiscal year.
Srinivas and Shubh Malhotra founded MPL in 2018. Since then, it has offered free-to-play and paid games like fantasy sports, casual board games, and simple sports games. Before the ban, India accounted for 50% of the revenue MPL generated. Both free-to-play and paid games contributed equally to that 50%.
Now, the Online Gaming Bill 2025 has banned all RMG in India. This has also affected other platforms. Dream11, which used to be a direct competitor of MPL, My11Circle, Zupee, WinZo, and other fantasy gaming applications, has also stopped offering paid games in India.
Most of these have now shifted their focus to other areas to sustain their business. Dream Sports, the parent company of Dream11, is now pivoting to other non-RMG ventures, such as FanCode, its own live sports and media streaming platform, and DreamSetGo, a platform for sharing sports travel and experiences, among other formats.
Zupee has also shifted its focus to free-to-play titles, such as Ludo Supreme and Snake and Ladders.
WinZo has expanded into the US market and also launched ZO TV, a short-video platform, to diversify its content offerings.
Other platforms, such as Probo, PokerBaazi, and Gameskraft, are also expanding to offer free-to-play options.
