“Junglee” in Hindi means wild, unpredictable, literally someone or something from the jungle.
The word could very well apply to India’s vast gambling market, both regulated and (still mostly) unregulated.
So it comes with little surprise to hear that Flutter Entertainment, that beacon of the iGaming zeitgeist, has decided to pull its online Junglee Games offering from India’s volatile betting bazaar.
A move–officially precipitated by the government’s all-too-expected decision to ban all regulated real-money gambling in the nation–that comes after years of obfuscation and muddying talk of differentiating between “games of chance” and “games of skill”.
Spot-fixing
The brutal truth of the matter is that powerful underground and criminal forces with extensive political influence–and controlling Numbers and cricket spot-fixing rackets that generate more money than legal gaming in either Macau or Las Vegas–were always set against legalising gambling in this, the world’s most populous nation.
I vividly recall interviewing a so-called India gambling expert at the last ICE in London, who struggled to communicate what she and her political masters defined as “gambling’ in the Indian context.
Readers wanting to further understand the byzantine complexities of India’s notorious gambling underworld can access my special report published by iGF last year:
https://igamingfuture.com/gamblings-odds-in-india/
Returning to today’s news, the real-money betting ban–following months of debate over putative gambling tax and tariff hikes–literally came out of the blue last week, and was passed into law within days.
Jackson Setback
The closure of Junglee is a set-back for Flutter CEO Peter Jackson, hitherto so astute with international market acquisition and market direction.
Jackson was patently betting big on India, projecting revenue of around US$200 million this year (£148.35m) for Junglee Games, which employed over 1,000 people.
Perhaps some of these workers can find positions at Flutter Entertainment’s recently-expanded data analytics and engineering Global Capability Centre in Hyderabad, south India.
Located at RMZ Spire in Hyderabad’s Knowledge City tech park, Flutter opened the hub in August last year with an initial investment of some US$3.5 million (£2.59m).
Gambling Gods
Employing over 700 technicians and engineers working across data, game integrity, HR Operations, procurement, safety and security, and customer operations, the software powerhouse is not specifically home market dependent.
And it looks to stay open.
As Peter Jackson has found out to his company’s cost, India is a land of 4,000 gambling gods, and each one has 400 avatars.
Make of that what you will.
Watch this space!
