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Sportskeeda's Business of Sports conducted a LinkedIn Live session with the CEO and Founder of Gamerji, Mr. Soham Thacker, a trailblazing figure in the world of esports and gaming. With a remarkable vision and entrepreneurial spirit, he has taken the industry by storm.
Under his leadership, Gamerji quickly gained recognition as a leading esports platform, offering an inclusive and innovative space for players of all skill levels. By hosting online tournaments, providing engaging content, and fostering a vibrant community, it has become the go-to destination for competitive gaming enthusiasts.
Gamerji’s unwavering dedication to providing a seamless experience for gamers offers cutting-edge technology solutions that streamline tournament organization and create an immersive environment. With a deep understanding of the gaming community's needs, it has evolved into a platform that caters to both casual and professional players, creating a level playing field for everyone.
Gamerji's journey and vision for the gaming industry
The idea and need for Gamerji originated with Soham. He recognized a gap between the infrastructure and awareness, and the challenges faced by the industry. Subsequently, he decided to build something that could also act as a pathway through the massive esports industry.
"We started with bedroom gamers and cafeteria gamers coming to participate in daily tournaments. The vision of Gamerji will continue to be bridging the gap between the bedrooms and the arena."
Through his interview, he shared a lot of insights related to Gamerji's past, present, and future plans. He dove into various topics like strategies, consumer behavior, challenges, partnerships, and opportunities for the gaming industry and its stakeholders.
He reiterated that Gamerji's primary focus has always been qualitative development and not just quantitative growth. They believe in addressing their target audience by directly tapping into them through channels such as influencers, events, and other avenues. Next comes retaining the acquired share through a seamless user interface, engaging tournaments, and rewards.
"Gaming is not a distraction from the traditional sports. With the virtual world taking over, maintaining balance is the key. Focus on maintaining the balance of your Heart, Mind, and Body."
This is the mantra he shared with us when asked about whether gaming and esports are a distraction from academics and physical sports. He rightly addressed the question by explaining how the virtual world has taken over academics as well as physical sports. In addition to that, he shared Gamerji's vision to not only be a platform to come and play games to build your stats and skills, but also enable partnerships with professional esports organizations.
Unlocking synergies: Gamerji's strategic partnerships and expansion ventures
Speaking about their latest venture with Vodafone Idea, Mr. Thacker shared how a strategic partnership works when both parties come together for their mutual benefit.
He explained the characteristics of the deal for Gamerji to gain access to a gigantic pool of audience to tap into. In return, they provide Vodafone Idea users with something to engage in instead of just paying their bills. It further enables them to not only engage, but to connect with their users and build a community.
"Rather than investing money in marketing and resources to acquire each individual gamer, it is a lot easier to connect with a platform with existing active users and cater to them with a solution."
He mentioned that strategic partnerships like these could be the future of the esports industry, as they could lead to creating synergies for multiple benefits and growth. The gaming industry provides interactive engagement in exchange for access to a million more users, as reaching the audience has always been a crucial aspect for the industry.
On being asked about the factors to consider while building such B2B partnerships, he mentioned that the only aspect he would consider while forming such alliances is the reach they can provide to Gamerji.
"As long as there is a healthy amount of daily active users' footfall on the platform, esports can become an additional model of engagement, even revenue, and building a community in the existing audience."
Soham also let us sneak a peek into their upcoming partnership with a cab platform, giving us an exciting example of the idea of participating in an instantaneous tournament if the cab ride is longer than 30 minutes. This explains how combining people's time and platforms utility in an innovative manner can build value for all parties involved, i.e., the end-user, the platform, and Gamerji.
Gamerji, now looking to expand their boundaries beyond nations, has procured licences for Indonesia, the Philippines, and the Middle-East markets. The affiliated industries range from telecommunication industries, e-commerce platforms, and many other avenues across India and abroad as well.
Navigating challenges and embracing technological advancements: Gamerji's journey to success
But along with the vast opportunities, there are also a lot of challenges that Gamerji has faced in tackling cultural and social differences across national borders. May it be challenges related to the subscription model, infrastructural differences in terms of devices, cloud/storage issues related to the servers, and many more, they have always been capable of facing such obstacles and incorporating changes or modulations to conquer them.
Similar to the issues faced outside of the Indian market, Soham also shared how they have been actively involved in acknowledging the problems and conjuring a solution to work their way out.
He shared how they managed to move forward even after a ban was imposed on PUBG Mobile, which was the biggest mobile game in the Indian market at the time. How they have been actively adopting changes in gamers tastes in various games ranging from BGMI (Battlegrounds Mobile India) to Clash Royale to FIFA and monitoring the stats of a user across these games.
He adequately addressed the question of the dilemma of keeping users engaged on the platform versus tackling concerns around addiction. Soham explained how Gamerji, despite not having direct control over the number of hours a user spends in the game, has restricted the number of tournaments a user can join in a single day to establish control, shows social responsibility, and ensures safety and well-being.
Speaking about the next challenge of retaining an existing user, Soham highlighted that retention is a two-step process. They ensure the delivery of an immaculate and seamless gaming experience when you participate in a tournament. In the next step, he explains how the introduction of statistical data for every user across all the games has played a crucial role in keeping them interested in the platform.
Moving on to the next and foremost challenge of all - technological advancements affecting the esports and gaming industries. Soham stated that it is crucial for any company in the industry to go hand in hand with the technological advancements that follow.
He was proud to let us all know how well-equipped Gamerji is to welcome the developments in games or technology with best-in-class automated matchmaking, screen imaging, cloud server management, etc. This gives them an edge, and thus, they aim to scale to an even greater number of tournaments being hosted on their platform.
Charting your path: Exploring career opportunities in the evolving esports industry
With people's perceptions of gaming shifting to a slightly more serious note, many individuals are keen on pursuing a career in the esports industry. However, because the industry is still in its early stages, it is often confusing to take a leap of faith.
Through his visionary directive, Soham defined the four pillars of the esports industry, and shared his view of four clearly different verticals, i.e., game development, online tournament platforms, content creators, and professional leagues.
"If you are an aspiring entrant in the industry, you can start working around these four pillars and eventually decide what works best for you. With the industry as a whole growing minute by minute at a rapid rate and India slowly gaining recognition along the way, it would be a perfect time for any aspiring individual to perceive the gaming industry as a viable career option."
Catch the whole live session below to avoid missing out on an extremely interactive and candid conversation that delves into insights into the esports industry.
In the years to come, it is clear that Mr. Soham Thacker and Gamerji will continue to shape the future of competitive gaming, empowering players and leaving an indelible impact on the industry. With his finger on the pulse of the community, he is poised to lead them towards even greater success, solidifying the platform's position as a game-changer in the world of esports.
