Chennai: High drama unfolded last evening after Google removed mobile payment application Paytm from its Play Store, citing breach of its gambling restrictions, before bringing it back again by evening.
Paytm is India’s most valuable startup and claims over 50 million monthly active users. Its marquee app, which competes with Google Pay in India, disappeared from the Play Store in the country on Friday.
Google said that Play Store prohibits online casinos and other unregulated gambling apps that facilitate sports betting in India. Paytm, which has promoted a fantasy sports service within its marquee app, repeatedly violated Play Store’s policies, two people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.
Paytm’s fantasy sports service, called Paytm First Games, was also available as a standalone app, which has been pulled from the Play Store, too.
Google said Paytm had violated its gambling policies. The developments came a day before the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which is known to spike interest in so-called ‘fantasy sports’ — Internet-based games where users win rewards for creating virtual teams based on the performance of their actual counterparts.
Paytm had on Friday announced the fantasy ‘Paytm Cricket League’, in which users could win cash rewards based on the actual performance of cricketers in the IPL. This was on the lines of the fantasy sports platform Dream11 — also IPL’s title sponsor — and in contravention of Play Store policies.
Paytm’s founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma — who said Google was acting like ‘judge, jury and executioner’ — was quoted as saying by TOI the company was notified in the morning that the app was being taken down due to a cricket sticker promo on payments it was running.
In the promo, a user who collects five stickers is entitled to a cashback. Many such schemes run across other payment platforms as well. It had also received warnings for promoting Paytm First Games, a sports fantasy platform, on its main application thrice.
Google, without naming Paytm, said in a blog post that it doesn’t allow online casinos or support any unregulated gambling apps that facilitate sports betting.
“This includes if an app leads consumers to an external website that allows them to participate in paid tournaments to win real money or cash prizes, it is a violation of our policies,” the internet search giant said.
Meanwhile, the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS), an ‘industry body’ that represents some fantasy sports firms, claims it complained to Google to take action on companies that distribute or promote fantasy sports through Play Store.
Dream Sports, the parent firm of app Dream 11, is the founding member of FIFS. Dream11 app is not available on the Play Store.