Entertainment
Bollywood v/s cricketers football match ends in draw,Abhishek says cause wins
Mumbai:A charity football match between the film industry and Indian cricketers ended in a 2-2 draw, but actor Abhishek Bachchan said irrespective of the draw the noble cause for which the match was held emerged the winner.
The match, entitled ‘Celebrity Classico 2016′, between cricketers’ team ‘All Heart’ and the filmstars’ team ‘All Stars’ took place at the Mumbai Football Arena in Andheri Sports Complex on Saturday.
Abhishek’s charity Playing for Humanity and cricketer Virat Kohli’s charity The Virat Kohli Foundation were behind this initiative to raise funds for those affected by the severe drought in Maharashtra.
The All Stars was captained by Ranbir Kapoor and had players like Aditya Roy Kapur, Shoojit Sircar, Raj Kundra among others. All Heart was captained by Virat and had players like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, R Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, among others.
It was Sircar who scored the first goal for All Stars, while the second goal came from Ranbir’s trainer Antonio Pecora. For All Heart, it was Yuvraj Singh and KL Rahul who scored the goals.
“Well it was a draw and we’re very happy because the last time we played we lost by one goal. I’m very proud of Ranbir and the entire team. They played with all their hearts. We are very proud and honoured that we got the opportunity to play against the Indian cricket team,” Abhishek said after the match.
“A draw is as good as a win. At the end of the day, we did this for a great cause — to raise awareness and funds for drought victims. It doesn’t matter who wins or loses. The people we did it for win at the end of the day,” he added.
The actor said that it was the idea of Aditya Thackeray, president of Shiv Sena’a youth wing Yuva Sena, to do the charity match for drought victims.
“It’s been my favourite sport since childhood and we all took it seriously. We play every Sunday. We’re really happy that we can play for such a good cause,” Ranbir said.
Ranbir and Abhishek are co-owners of football teams in the Indian Super League.
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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