Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], July 9 (ANI): The skill-based ludo gaming platform Zupee has become increasingly popular, with a large number of people making a beeline to play the ludo game.

'Over the past few years, Zupee's Ludo game has become popular and a category-leader,' Ravi Shankar Jha, Director, Public Policy, Zupee, told ANI on Wednesday.

Zupee was founded in 2018 by IIT Kanpur graduate Dilsher Malhi at a very young age.

'Our key offering is the game of Ludo. At Zupee, we digitised Ludo because a large number of people in India play and love this game. We tweaked the game a bit. The tweaking was needed to enhance the role of skill, and with the changes, the chance element has reduced. We also reduced the duration of the game so that it becomes fast-paced, and the gamers need to apply their minds and skills,' said Jha, speaking in Hindi. Zupee offers both free and real-money Ludo games on its platform.

'Over 90 per cent of our users have their lifetime spending on Zupee at less than Rs 100 on average,' Jha said, indicating that people are not betting their hard-earned money.

'People come to our platform for pure entertainment, and they only put a nominal amount of money,' he added.

On the safety front, Jha said the Zupee platform invests time, resources, and effort in ensuring users' interests are protected.

'We keep our data safe and secure. We don't allow cash transactions. All transactions are made online, partnering with reliable payment gateway partners,' Jha noted.

The company is in touch with the central government, said Jha, asserting that they have been discussing ways and means to regulate the real-money gaming space.

'Various state governments are also working on this. Zupee has been taking part in various platforms where discussions on the gaming space are held. We put forward our views constructively in those platforms,' Jha supplemented.

Zupee currently has current has about 450 employees.

Echoing on the safety aspect, Govind Mittal, Chief Spokesperson, Zupee, supplemented that Zupee only partners with RBI-approved payment gateway platforms for deposits and withdrawals.

'We have a mechanism to keep a fraud check. We block such frauds from our end, we don't allow their transactions,' he said. 'We also have a customer grievance redressal team.'

Mittal, speaking to ANI, requested that the central government and the Uttar Pradesh government make a clear distinction between genuine and non-genuine platforms.

'A framework should be developed to make a distinction between gaming platforms, helping users to make an informed choice while taking part in real-money gaming,' Mittal added, speaking in Hindi.

Zupee claims to offer 'games of skill,' in which a player's skill, knowledge, attention, experience, and capabilities are crucial to success. (ANI)