By Paramita Datta
Kavin Bharti Mittal’s Rush is ceasing operations in India following Parliament’s approval of the Online Gaming Bill, which enforces a total ban on all real-money games. In a message to users, Mittal stated that the government’s position, through GST increases, regulatory uncertainty, and now a prohibition without consulting the industry ,clearly indicated that real-money gaming has no future in India.
Mittal expressed in a Substack post that, after meeting with their investors and the team, he had reached the tough conclusion to shut down Hike entirely. He mentioned that their US operations, which had begun only nine months prior, were performing well, but following the ban in India, expanding internationally would need a complete reassessment and reset.
Making the announcement in an extensive Substack article, Introduced in 2020, Rush swiftly became one of India’s top RMG platforms, reaching over $500 million in gross revenue in just four years. It enabled users to engage in competitive skill-based games for cash rewards, becoming Hike’s main product following its shift away from messaging.
Introduced in 2020, Rush swiftly became one of India’s top RMG platforms, reaching over $500 million in gross revenue in just four years. It enabled users to engage in competitive skill-based games for cash rewards, becoming Hike’s main product following its shift away from messaging.
There were other significant issues to address and greater chances to utilize exceptional talent and capital. Kavin Bharti Mittal, son of Sunil Bharti Mittal, the founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, which is the parent company of Bharti Airtel, oversees Hike. The firm receives support from investors including SoftBank, Tencent, Tiger Global, Bharti, Foxconn, Jump Crypto, Tribe Capital, Republic, and Polygon. The firm stated that it boasts more than 10 million participants across 14 skill-focused mobile games and that players collectively receive $480 million in annual winnings.
Mittal remarked that, for the first time, technology possessed both intelligence and memory, urging individuals to envision products that not only fulfilled functional roles but also genuinely understood their users, systems capable of adapting, evolving, and collaborating with them. He noted that, as a UX-first creator, this was the most thrilling era for developing software.