Goa-based Casino Pride Group has bought a 30% stake in OceanKing Software Solutions LLP, the Mumbai-based company that owns and operates online gaming startup Baadshah Gaming, for an undisclosed amount.
“The strategic partnership is aimed at boosting the gaming portal’s agenda of venturing into the ‘click and mortar’ business model,†Baadshah Gaming said in a statement.
As part of the deal, the startup will launch its ‘Baadshah Gaming Live’ property at Casino Pride.
The partnership gives Casino Pride access to the startup’s live gaming operations, said Madhav Gupta, co-founder and partner at Baadshah Gaming.
Baadshah Gaming, which went live in May, is a portal that offers poker, fantasy league and rummy under one roof. The league ranges in size from three to 10,000 players with buy-ins starting as low as Rs 15 and going up to Rs 10,000. Users can play these games both on desktops as well as handheld devices via web browsers.
This is not the first offline-to-online bet in the gaming segment. Last year, Pune-based hospitality firm Delta Corp Ltd acquired Gaussian Networks Pvt Ltd, which operates online poker site adda52.com, in a cash-and-stock deal that valued the three-year-old startup around Rs 182 crore ($27 million).
A slew of digital gaming firms have raised venture capital money over the past few months. Most recently, Bangalore-based mobile gaming startup Mech Mocha Game Studios Pvt. Ltd raised $5 million (Rs 32 crore) in its Series A round led by venture capital firms Accel Partners and China’s Shunwei Capital.
Hyderabad-based game development company Head InfoTech India Pvt Ltd, which operates online gaming firm Ace2Three, raised $73.7 million from investors led by Canadian private equity firm Clairvest Group in April.
Earlier this year, Udupi-based gaming startup 99Games Online Pvt. Ltd raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Japanese investment firm Dream Incubator. Existing investors Ascent Capital and Kalaari Capital also participated in the round.