Entertainment
Ashneer Grover allegedly ‘sold’ passes of IPL 2021 for Crores
Adding fuel to the ongoing Ashneer Grover-BharatPe saga, multiple sources on Wednesday confirmed that Grover allegedly sold thousands of free passes during the second leg of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in Dubai last year and pocketed couple of crores from the sale of most of those passes.
BharatPe was the Global Partner of the tournament that was shifted from India to the UAE owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 31 matches were held in Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi across 27 days, from September 19 and October 15, last year.
Sources close to the development told IANS that Grover allegedly sold each pass for at least 750 dirham (approximately Rs 15,000) and in the process, made several crores, which were allegedly deposited in a Dubai account.
Generally, a Global Partner gets around 700 free passes for one match and for 31 matches, the fintech platform had thousands of passes to distribute, and most of which were allegedly sold, according to sources.
Some BharatPe employees told IANS that they were given passes for the common stands at the IPL 2021 in the UAE but not the VIP ones.
It was the first time since 2019 when the IPL was played in front of an audience. Matches were played at Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi with limited seating available keeping in mind the Covid protocols and the UAE government regulations.
In June last year, the International Cricket Council (ICC) entered into a strategic partnership with BharatPe from 2021 to 2023.
The agreement ensured BharatPe’s involvement and integration at all ICC events throughout the term.
Grover had said then that this association “will enable us to build a stronger relationship with our existing merchants, as well as engage better with millions of new, small merchants across the length and breadth of India”.
The fintech platform recently sacked his wife Madhuri Jain Grover over alleged financial irregularities during her tenure as Head of Controls to the tune of crores of rupees.
Post this, Grover had resigned, saying that he is being forced to quit a company of which “I am a founder”.
In a statement, BharatPe said it “reserves all rights to take further legal action against him (Ashneer Grover) and his family”.
Earlier this month, the fintech platform revealed that Grover, his wife Madhuri Jain, and their relatives were engaged in extensive misappropriation of company funds and grossly abused company money to fund their lavish lifestyles.
Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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