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WinZO Sues Google For Discrimination Against Betting Apps

WinZO, a gaming app developer for games like poker, rummy, fantasy sports, and more, is suing Google in the Delhi High Court for discrimination against non-rummy and fantasy gaming apps. According to the company, the tech giant is only allowing rummy and fantasy apps on its play store and not real money gaming apps that permit betting and gambling in India. This was after Google announced that it would be doing a one-year pilot with rummy and fantasy apps.

Saumya Singh Rathore, co-founder of WinZO, told reporters that the limited inclusion of apps in Google’s pilot would deepen the monopolies held by fantasy sports firms like Dream11 and hurts developers like Winzo, which have real money game concepts in the gaming apps. So far, Google has declined to comment on the matter, and the company has not ruled out adding other real money gaming apps in its pilot period. The court hearing is due on Wednesday.

Earlier in March of this year, Winzo sued Google for awarning Google Chrome displays on its mobile devices when users try to download apps outside of its Play Store. As per Rathore, the warning, which says, “File might be harmful,” was making 75 out of 100 users who tried to download the app change their minds.

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ALSO READ: Google Play Allows Fantasy Sports And Rummy Apps In India

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According to the court documents, Google’s lawyers said that the lawsuit was “frivolous, infructuous and warrant dismissal,” arguing that Google Chrome, as well as other browsers, also show a similar message for APK files downloaded outside of the Play Store. The lawyers further stated that Winzo was not the only app subjected to the prompt, and as per the IT Rules, 2021, Google was permitted to show the prompt as a security measure.

Reviews from Winzo’s iOS app were also cited by Google, where it was revealed that multiple users claim that they were defrauded by the app or unable to make withdrawals.

“WinZO is among many other industry players, such as MPL and Zupee, among others, who have called [Google’s rummy and fantasy sports pilot] policy arbitrary, unfair, and restrictive,” the company said in a press release.

Rathore, in a statement, said that the “pilot is detrimental to thousands of companies and can lead to irreversible market distortion of a fast moving gaming tech industry, leading to the death of many players as the strong get stronger.”

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