Following the Centre’s ban on online real money gaming (RMG), gaming unicorn Games24x7 has now reportedly begun laying off nearly 70% of its workforce.

Sources told news agency PTI that the retrenchment exercise will impact nearly 500 employees at the company.

“There were around 700 to 750 employees at Games24x7. The company is now laying off around 70% of them. Around 500 people may be impacted,” a source reportedly said.

This comes a week after Inc42 reported that the company had begun layoffs, which would impact employees across the board and departments. Notably, this is the second round of retrenchments at the company this year.

In May this year, much before the RMG ban, the gaming giant fired close to 180 employees on account of the revenue hit from the GST clarification that came in late 2023.

Founded in 2006, Games24x7 claims to operate an online skill gaming platform. It initially rose to prominence on the back of its flagship rummy platform, RummyCircle, but later expanded to fantasy sports with My11Circle.

Backed by marquee investors such as Tiger Global and Raine Group, the gaming startup has raised more than $108 Mn to date. It achieved the coveted unicorn status with a valuation of $2.5 Bn during its $75 Mn fundraise in 2022.

At its peak, Games24x7 claimed to have more than 500 Mn fantasy teams and even sponsored the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 as an associate partner. The company clocked an operating revenue of INR 1,980 Cr in FY23, up 70% YoY, against a net loss of INR 250 Cr, up 9% YoY.

With this, Games24x7 has become the latest Indian gaming startup to axe jobs in the aftermath of the new online gaming laws.

Passed last month, the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 prohibits all forms of online real money gaming but keeps the door open for promoting esports and non-money online games.

The yet-to-be-notified act bans all forms of advertisements related to online money gaming and bars financial institutions from processing any transactions related to such platforms. The act envisages hefty fines and/ or imprisonment for violations.

Meanwhile, the ban left the online RMG ecosystem seething and crumbling. Many platforms have shut down RMG offerings, laid off employees and pivoted to new business models to comply with the Centre’s directions.

Earlier this month, it emerged that gaming unicorn MPL was laying off about 60% of its India staff while Nazara-backed Moonshine Technology, which operates PokerBaazi, was trimming its workforce by half.

On top of this, the business models of these RMG platforms evaporated overnight, forcing them to look for new monetisation tools. For instance, Dream11 plans to focus on its online streaming platform FanCode, fintech and the AI segment.

Meanwhile, rival WinZO has pivoted to the short video segment by rolling out its short video feature called ZO TV while Zupee has ventured into the short video content space.

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