Online gaming companies are bolstering their legal teams to navigate an increasingly complex regulatory landscape shaped by issues like goods & services tax (GST) compliance and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDPA).
The sector is witnessing a surge in demand for legal professionals with expertise across public policy, regulation, taxation, and fundraising. Startups in the gaming ecosystem are particularly keen on lawyers with diverse skill sets to guide them through the evolving regulatory framework.
Recently, Junglee Games onboarded Ashish Chandra as chief legal & risk officer, signalling its intent to strengthen internal capabilities. Similarly, Dream11 appointed Gautam Rohidekar as group general counsel a few months ago.
In May, Gaurav Dugar joined Dream Sports, the parent company of Dream11, as head of M&A (legal). Before this, Dugar served as general counsel at CredAble, a fintech specialising in working capital financing.
“With rapid growth and evolving regulations, companies are building stronger legal teams to address compliance, risk, and policy challenges,” said Karl Fernandes, senior partner and head of the corporate practice group at Vahura. He noted that his firm was handling several active mandates for gaming companies looking to expand their legal bench strength.
Industry veterans believe that the legal teams of gaming companies need to deal with a myriad of issues, from data protection, cyber security, and IPR to litigation, to contracts, regulation, compliance, and taxation.
The recent DPDPA mandates companies to introduce new processes which is one of the reasons for the increased demand for legal professionals. Additionally, an increase in M&A activity in this sector is also paving the way for the requirement of equipped legal personnel within the system.
“Currently, four of India’s top eight gaming firms are actively recruiting across levels, with others having already fortified their legal teams,” said Shivani Desai, chief executive officer of BDO Executive Search Services. “We are seeing a significant uptick in hiring for legal teams within online gaming companies,” she adds.
Sameer Chugh, chief legal officer and general counsel at Games24X7, said as the gaming space grows, innovation will be the differentiator leading to an increase in legal requirements.
“Currently, the legal teams of most gaming companies are small and will need to be ramped up in the future leading to a demand for lawyers in the gaming sector,” said Chugh. “The future legal departments in gaming companies will be dealing with more regulatory issues and as this space continues to get regulated, there will be increased requirements for in-house litigators and regulatory lawyers,” he adds.
According to the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), a body under the commerce ministry, the gaming market in India reached $ 2.2 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow to $ 8.6 billion by 2028. Data from the ministry suggests that in 2023, India emerged as the biggest gaming market globally with 568 million gamers.