Mobile Premier League

Mobile Premier League (also known as MPL) is a mobile e-Sports platform based in India. It is operated by Bangalore-based Galactus Funware Technology Pvt. Ltd.

Mobile Premier League
TypePrivate Limited
IndustryMobile Gaming, e-Sports
FoundedSeptember 2018
FounderSai Srinivas Kiran Garimella, Shubham Malhotra
HeadquartersBangalore, India
Area served
India, Indonesia
ParentGalactus Funware Technology Pvt. Ltd.
Websitehttps://www.mpl.live/

Users can compete in multiple skill based mobile gaming tournaments on MPL. It was launched in September 2018 and as of April 2019, it claims a user base of more than 25 million.[1][2]

History

Mobile Premier League was founded in September 2018 by Sai Srinivas Kiran Garimella and Shubham Malhotra, who earlier worked together on Consumer Electronics company CREO.[3] It started as a side-load only app, but was soon launched on Google Play Store in October 2018.[4] The Apple App Store launch followed in February 2019.[5]

On 8 November 2018, it was announced that MPL has raised $5 million in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital.[3] Speculation of a follow-up $30 million funding round led by Go-Jek started as early as December 2018.[6] On 24 April 2019, it was officially announced that MPL has raised $35.5 million in Series A funding from lead investors Go-Ventures, Times Internet and Sequoia Capital India.[7]

On 15 April 2019, MPL signed up as a member of All India Gaming Federation (AIGF), which focuses on setting regulations and policies to govern the gaming industry in India.[8]

In April 2019, MPL entered into a strategic partnership with Flipkart owned PhonePe. The partnership allows PhonePe users to play the fantasy cricket game MPL SuperTeam from within its app, thus giving a larger audience reach to MPL.[9][10]

Expansion to Indonesian market was announced in early May 2019.[11]

Game formats

MPL is a platform where users can signup to play skill-games and win cash prizes in return. Users can choose to play from three different formats of games.

Tournaments

When playing in a tournament, users need to submit their high-score to rank high on the leader-board. Users can play a game multiple times in a tournament, only the highest score of each user is considered for final leader-board calculation.

1-vs-1 battles

Some games on MPL platform are available to be played against real players in 1-vs-1 mode. In this two player format, user scoring higher or finishing the game first takes home the winning amount.

Fantasy Sports

Through SuperTeam fantasy sport platform, MPL gives its users an option to create a virtual team and join contests for upcoming live matches. Real life performance of selected players determine the points scored by the team created. Users are rewarded prizes based on the final ranking of their teams in a contest.

Branding and campaigns

In March 2019, MPL signed up Virat Kohli as their brand ambassador for a duration of one year[12] and planned to launch marketing campaigns ahead of IPL 2019. Kohli announced the partnership by posting a short video on his social media profiles.[13][14][15] A TVC Campaign #GameKheloHeroBano, featuring Virat Kohli was launched in April 2019.[16][17] The creative agency behind the campaign was Lowe Lintas Bangalore.[18]

With the launch of SuperTeam fantasy cricket league on MPL platform, K. L. Rahul announced being signed up as the brand ambassador for SuperTeam.[19]

References
  1. "Mobile Premier League (MPL): A new era of gaming in India is here". www.sportskeeda.com. 9 April 2019. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  2. S.H, Salman (24 April 2019). "Gaming start-up MPL raised $35.5 million from Sequoia, & others". Mint. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  3. "Sequoia leads investment in Creo founders' new gaming startup MPL". VCCircle. 8 November 2018. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  4. "Top 10 trending games of the week (October 1 to October 7) - Gaming News | Gadgets Now". Gadget Now. 8 October 2018. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  5. "MPL - Mobile Premier League". App Store. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  6. Shrivastava, Aditi; Sharma, Samidha (2 December 2018). "Indonesia's Go-Jek in talks to invest $30M in e-sports startup Mobile Premier League". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  7. www.ETtech.com. "MPL secures Rs 250 cr from Go-Jek arm, Sequoia India & Times Internet - ETtech". ETtech.com. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  8. "Mobile Premier League (MPL) comes onboard as an AIGF Member. - India's Biggest Gaming Platform". Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  9. Bhakta, Pratik (9 April 2019). "PhonePe is tapping in-app merchants". The Economic Times. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  10. "PhonePe betting big on sports this year, sees growth in transactions". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  11. "Digital gaming startup MPL enters Indonesia after raising Series A round". Techcircle. 2 May 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  12. www.ETBrandEquity.com. "Mobile Premier League announces Virat Kohli as brand ambassador - ET BrandEquity". ETBrandEquity.com. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  13. Kohli, Virat (3 March 2019). "A little bit of fun off the field never hurt anyone! Check out the super quirky games on the Mobile Premier League, get the gamer hero in you all charged up and win prizes everyday". @imVkohli. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  14. "Virat Kohli on Instagram: "A little bit of fun off the field never hurt anyone! 😏 Check out the super quirky games on the Mobile Premier League, get the gamer hero in…"". Instagram. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  15. "Virat Kohli". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  16. "Can Virat Kohli propel the Mobile Premier League?". Forbes India. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  17. "Mobile Premier League releases 4-part ad campaign with Virat Kohli - Exchange4media". Indian Advertising Media & Marketing News – exchange4media. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  18. "Virat Kohli launches Mobile Premier League in a campaign by Lowe Lintas - Exchange4media". Indian Advertising Media & Marketing News – exchange4media. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  19. "KL Rahul". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
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