GAME OF SKILLS
smarts-digital is labeled as a “Skill-Based Game.” A skill-based game is one in which a participant’s expertise, tactics, and awareness significantly outweigh pure chance in determining success. Players engage by applying their insight, mastery, practice, and concentration to compete and potentially win.
Around the globe, online fantasy sports are recognized as a lawful activity, with exceptions in a few regions. These platforms are structured around the principle of skill-based competition, where users assemble their own squads and earn points depending on the real-world output of their selected athletes.
smarts-digital operates within legal parameters by delivering offerings, entertainment options, features, and competitions concerning fantasy cricket, football, kabaddi, volleyball, basketball, and hockey. These services and events empower players to form their fantasy squads ahead of scheduled games, and these squads gather points based on how the selected players actually perform. The participant whose team accrues the most points wins. Team building on smarts-digital is entirely reliant on each user’s understanding, strategic planning, and focus, qualifying it as a game of skill and making it fully legal.
ALIGNMENT WITH THE INDIAN LAWS
Games grounded in skill, such as online fantasy competitions, are deemed permissible throughout India, excluding some areas like Sikkim, Assam, Odisha, Telangana, and Nagaland. The central regulation overseeing gambling activities in India is the Public Gambling Act of 1867 (“PGA, 1867”).
Under the PGA, managing or engaging in public gambling and maintaining a common gambling venue are considered criminal offenses. Nevertheless, online fantasy sports are not subjected to these restrictions under the PGA, since these games demand skill and analytical thinking from the participants rather than relying on chance.
SIKKIM, ASSAM, ODISHA, TELANGANA , ANDHRA PRADESH AND NAGALAND
Certain Indian states have ambiguous rules concerning skill-based games. For platforms hosting online fantasy sports contests, it remains unresolved whether they can lawfully provide paid services in these states. Among these are Sikkim, Assam, Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Nagaland, where legal clarity is lacking.
As a result, smarts-digital restricts users located in Sikkim, Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, and Nagaland from entering its paid fantasy contests.