Skill, chance or stake? How India reshaped online gaming and esports

Wednesday, 21 October 2026 Author: Abhinav Shrivastava, Sanjay Ravi, Manisha Bharathi Ranganathan

This article examines how online gaming and esports are regulated in India following the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 (PROGA), the country’s first unified national framework for online gaming, and two recent closely connected decisions of the Supreme Court.

Together they shift the test for legality away from whether a game is one of skill or of chance and towards whether money is staked on its outcome. For readers less familiar with the Indian position, it sets out the constitutional and regulatory background before turning to what the new regime means in practice for esports, which PROGA recognises and protects as a distinct competitive discipline, at both the professional and amateur levels.

It looks at:

Introduction: from skill to business model
The PROGA framework: a national law that turns on staking, not skill
The Supreme Court decisions: how Junglee Games and Gameskraft redrew the line
- Issue 1 (Junglee Games): can States ban staked games of skill?
- Issue 2 (Gameskraft): when an entry fee becomes a taxable stake
Impact of these decisions on PROGA
What PROGA permits: online social games and recognised esports
- Implication on professional esports: sponsor-funded prize pools on the right side of the line
- Amateur esports: where entry fees fund prizes, the model is most exposed
Conclusion: the open questions are now about design, not legality

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Tags: Esport | Football | Gaming & Betting | India | Regulation

Written by

Abhinav Shrivastava

Counsel, LawNK

Abhinav Shrivastava is Counsel at LawNK, a Bangalore based boutique law practice specialising in sports, media, technology and intellectual property laws. He heads the Privacy and Data Protection practice at LawNK, and is a graduate of Kings’ College London and NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.

Sanjay Ravi

Sanjay is an Associate at LawNK Partners and advises clients across the Sports, Non-profit and Commercial practice areas on regulatory compliance, commercial contracting and governance frameworks. He brings a practical sensibility to his work, helping organisations navigate shifting regulatory landscapes without losing sight of commercial objectives and operational realities.

Sport occupies a central place in his world, both professionally and personally. He cares deeply about the development of India’s sporting ecosystem and holds a clear view on what a healthier version of it looks like – a more multicentric landscape, where different sports compete and grow with genuine administrative and financial parity, rather than one shaped by the dominance of a few sports properties and assets. He works towards that future through his engagement with football clubs and non-profit organisations.

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Manisha Bharathi Ranganathan

Manisha is an Associate at LawNK Partners and advises on policy and governance-related matters in sport, with a particular interest in how these frameworks shape the broader sporting ecosystem. She is drawn to the interplay between legislative mandates and sporting culture, and the role that thoughtful reform can play in strengthening the sector over time.

She believes that a healthier sporting landscape is one that is more inclusive and accountable, with greater recognition and protection for grassroots, local and indigenous sports. In her opinion, our focus should also be on building systems that continue to evolve with goals of increasing transparency and accountability. This perspective informs her work and her engagement with governance-related work at LawNK Partners.