Stars Group gearing up for Indian market

The Stars Group is gearing up for Indian poker operations in partnership with lottery and gaming conglomerate, Sugal & Damani, according to GLaws.in, which claims that the duo will launch India-facing pokerstars.in.

The pokerstars.in domain is apparently registered to Sachiko Gaming Private Limited, an offshoot of Indian online skill games company Sachar Gaming Private Limited, which is understood to be associated with Sugal and Damani Group.

Sachar and Sachiko Gaming have the same directors in Hardik Parekh and Keval Parekh. As per the Memorandum of Association (MoA) of Sachiko Gaming, the primary objective of the company is ‘doing business and marketing of online gaming platform and e-commerce trades with associates and direct customers,’ GLaws.in reports..

Sachar Gaming, through its representative Hardik Parekh, owns 99 percent of the shares in Sachiko Gaming, and currently operates Indian rummy website khelplayrummy. The company also operated an online poker enterprise titled khelplay, which it closed on March 15, triggering speculation that it was making way for pokerstars.in.

The Indian PokerStars website is still in placeholder format, offering the information that services will be coming soon, but without giving any details. Speculation is that a launch is imminent, but there has been no confirmation of this.

The Stars Group has made no secret of its Indian ambitions; in mid-2017 CEO Rafi Ashkenazi estimated the value of the market at $150 million annually and said:

“We want to be there in time and we want to make sure that we are, as usual, the market leader when it comes to poker.”