Lockdown turns life to 'Online poker'

COVID-19 has affected a huge population worldwide and in India. As a result, precautionary measures have been taken both at the government and personal level to minimize socializing and hence all the public places, malls, recreation centers, markets, casinos have been shut down and offices/organizations have either called for a total shut down or work from home for the employees.

While social forms of recreational activities are bounded, there is a significant increase in time spent on online games. Adda52.com, India's largest online poker game, has witnessed the growth of 12% in daily active users and the average time spent per user in a day has grown by 18%.

There is a wave of isolation that has led people to stay back home for their own safety and with this, the online traffic on social media sites has increased immensely. On one hand, individuals are highly active on e-commerce sites, and on the other hand, the availability of free time has also attracted many users towards Adda52.com online poker gaming, as a source of entertainment and grooming their poker skills to win.

There has been a growth of 10% in new user registrations on Adda52.com ever since the shutdown. Another trend is that the game activity surges are no longer confined to post afternoon late evening trend but is distributed throughout the day.   

Naveen Goyal, CEO, Adda52, said, “Social distancing is a must to contain the spread of COVID19. As per the given circumstances, people are confined to their homes and are exploring new ways of getting engaged with entertainment, while existing players have digital as the only means to play (all land-based casinos are closed), we have witnessed 25% increase in average revenue per user. Instead of offers, our marketing approach is focusing on making people aware.”

“We are promoting poker and Adda52 as a means of learning new life skills while people are at home. With the aim to leave no stone unturned to provide an exceptional level of support to our players, we have created "Adda52 Happiness Cell" to facilitate faster resolution and provide instant care to players. Because of our approach, we are seeing a surge in the free game plays and the engagement rate has also increased,” he added.