Mobile Premier League (MPL), the official kit sponsor for the Indian cricket team has sacked more than 100 employees and is also exiting the Indonesian market.
Contents
Breaking Up With IPL
It was signed on as Indian Cricket Team’s Official KIT Partner in Nov 2020.
As part of the sponsorship it pays INR 65 Lakh per match and INR 3 Crore per year as Merchandise partner.
The company wants to break free of its “dependency” on IPL and achieve growth without spending on the cash rich tournament.
And it has succeeded.
MPL’s India team was able to grow the business without spending money on the IPL.
Reason Cited
MPL Co-Founder Sai Srinivas informed about the move via internal memo to employees.
Both Srinivas and Shubh Malhotra, another co-founder, cited global market conditions as a reason for the cutback.
Affected employees will receive complete severance and an option to hold on to their employee stock option (ESOPs) for a decade.
The Indian Gaming Industry
The real money gaming app is in one of the few categories among Indian unicorn startups that are actually profitable.
Gaming companies in India struck gold during the pandemic which forced everyone indoors, with little to do other than twiddling thumbs..
Mobile app downloads in India had increased by 50% and user engagement rose 20%
As a result, the startup’s total income grew 2130% to INR 499.5 Cr in FY21 from INR 22.4 Cr in FY20.
Inauspicious Times
MPL is yet another company which has laid off en masse in recent weeks.
The present scenario is that of a broader slowdown in the Indian startup ecosystem after witnessing a pandemic-fuelled boost in the past two years.
14 Indian startups have laid off 8,499 employees (excluding MPL).
However the development on MPL’s end indicates that even the gaming industry, which has had better luck at making money from users, is affected.
As earlier mentioned it is one of the few Indian unicorns that make money.
Two of the top ten profitable startups, Dream11 and Games 24×7, are in the real money gaming space.
Indonesia Exit
The company is headquartered in Bengaluru and has offices in New York and Singapore, along with Jakarta which will soon close.
The reason behind exiting Indonesia is the “return profile” which has been “several multiples lower” than what they were and are seeing in India.
This, despite putting in significant resources and capital over the last three years into Indonesian operations.
Hence, the company decided to “redeploy” its resources in other parts of our business to ensure “long-term health and success as a company.”
Financials
It claims to have over 9 crore users and offers more than 60 online games such as Fantasy Cricket, Rummy, Speed Chess with real cash prizes in paid tournaments and 1v1 games.
During FY21, MPL’s revenue from operations shot up by 709.5% to $51 million from $6.3 million in FY20.
Better days are ahead, since its annual losses grew by only 12.5% to $54.44 million in FY21.
MPL was last valued at $2.3 billion after raising a reported $150 million in September last year, which made it a unicorn.
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