Live Andar Bahar Outperforms All Traditional Desi Games
A live-dealer version of the traditional Indian Andar Bahar game has been found to outperform in terms of number of players all other popular desi and Asian games on a prominent online casino platform. At the same time, the simple card game takes the 4th overall position in player count among all casino games under the strong competition of established Western-type casino classics such as roulette and slots.
The findings are taken from a recently published research paper on real money gaming trends in modern India by the SevenJackpots industry and market analysis team, led by researcher Svilen Madjov.
The study examines anonymous statistical data on more than 17 lakh registered players on the PureWin online casino platform over a period of 14 months until December 2021. The team also uses publicly available Google Trends and third-party industry-wide statistical datasets to compare and confirm results.
The Andar Bahar game is also notable for bringing in a significant number of high rollers, or gamers who bet large amounts when playing. The presence of high rollers raises the total turnovers made by a game title and the average length of the registered gaming sessions.
Andar Bahar is the most popular of all games in the states of Karnataka and Jharkhand in terms of both player count and turnovers. In a breakdown by monthly number of registered players, Karnataka shows up in four instances with a dominant preference for Andar Bahar, outperformed by Western roulette in 9 instances.
The other traditional Indian and Asian games covered by Svilen Madjov’s study are led by Teen Patti, “a game that always comes high among player preferences, something that isn’t a surprise considering it regularly dominates mobile app rankings.”
Games of Chinese origin such as Sic Bo, Dragon Tiger, and Fan-Tan, as well as classic Indian titles like Jhandi Munda and Ludo are also prominent. Asian games as a whole are responsible for 13.5 percent of the turnover and around 10 percent of the player count among the top 30 games within the analyzed period.
Western Casino Games Enjoy Rising Popularity
Perhaps one of the most noticeable trends in modern-day casino gaming in India observed by the SevenJackpots’ research team is the rising popularity of classic Western casino games, especially roulette and slots.
Online roulette games have generated a massive 70.1 percent of the turnover and 53 percent of the total money bet within the top 30 games by turnover for the analyzed time period. The dominant shares displayed by roulette titles undergo only a slight decrease if the examination is extended to cover the top 100 games by total volumes of bet amounts.
“Lightning Roulette” is the clear leader among all single game titles, having attracted 3,180 players and generated 28.24 percent of the turnover and 22.50 percent of the total money bet within the top 30 games.
Slot games, on the other hand, are responsible for 29 percent of all gaming sessions played by the roughly 28 thousand users who chose any of the top 30 games. When we look at the top 100 games by number of players, the prominence of slot gaming sessions rises to 35.7 percent, just shy of surpassing the 35.8 percent boasted by roulette games. Notably, slots account for more than 2,300 out of the total of 2,640 casino games on offer on the PureWin website.
Both roulette and slots are famous for their high return-to-player (RTP) ratios and this has been one of the major factors driving their rise in popularity in India.
Other popular Western games covered by the study include blackjack, baccarat and Texas Hold’em poker, which jointly generate 9 percent of the turnover and account for 11.6 percent of the total player count in the analysis. “Speed Baccarat” is the card game with the highest rating in the top 30.
Live, Dynamic and Simplified Gaming
Among the general trends in modern-day desi gaming habits is the tendency to go for live, dynamic and simplified gaming experience.
With the exception of slots which cannot have a dealer and compensate with attractive and dynamic visual features, almost all top 30 games, Asian and Western alike, are played live.
“Mainstream popularity made casinos part of the gaming culture in India decades ago. Nowadays, players enjoy a setup that brings the spirit of a gambling hall into the palm of their hand,” industry researcher Svilen Madjov comments.
Desi gamers also prefer quick-play and simplified versions of games, often including words like “lightning,” “speed,” “instant,” or “auto” in their title. “Easy gameplay often means a quicker draw or a spin, even instant results,” Madjov points out.
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