If you are that busy executive who likes to unwind over the weekend playing a game but can’t find the right partners to play with or ground to play it on, GameOn India is where you should head.

Founded in 2012 by Zeba Zaidi, a graduate of Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi, and her husband Adnan Adeeb, GameOn India promises to organise everything – the venue, equipment, refreshments and find you like-minded persons – for a game of cricket, football, badminton, basketball, tennis and athletics.

An individual or group can log on to www.gameonindia.net and select the preferred game and schedule. An individual may be charged Rs 2,000-3,000 for four weekends in a month to play badminton. The person has to be at the venue at the scheduled time. You need not worry if you are just a group of four friends and do not have a field, but want to play football. GameOn will connect you with other sports enthusiasts looking to play football and will organise the venue.

GameOn is organising an obstacle run tournament – Devils Circuit -- in Noida on October 6. Devils Circuit will be a 5-km gruelling run that makes participants run go through mud, freezing water, fire, ropes, pits and obstacles.

Zeba realised that most people are fond of one game or the other, having played them during their student days, while corporate professionals are looking at ways to be fit.

Love for the game

“Both of us come from a sales-oriented background. I spent 10 years in London and three in Dubai. Three years ago, we were living happily in Dubai. Adnan was handling sales in West Asia and Africa for an IT company. And he was given a chance to come to India,” says Zeba.

The couple had no plans to return to India. But the Indian story was buoyant those days. So they moved back home.

“I had moved back without a job and I had lot of time. I wanted to get back to work and do something on my own. We did a lot of research and found that amateur sports is a huge market and no one is doing much in this space,” Zeba recalls.

She feels that living abroad kept her close to outdoor activities. So the idea of engaging mid- or senior-level executives in sports was at the back of her mind.

“When we were abroad there was always a balance of work and life. There is a culture of being outdoors and playing football over the weekends. What we found was that in India too, given a chance, people would love to get associated with sports. It’s fun to go out and play a game of cricket,” she said.

The strategy was clear on what could attract people to come out and play. Two things, Zeba says, infrastructure and facilities, and team mates.

“We do not want to do it for students or for those who just started working. We wanted to do it for persons with middle management careers, who have certain quality expectations. We wanted to make it a premium offer,” she says.

GameOn India was incorporated in January 2012 and hosted its first games – cricket and football – in March 2012. Nearly 200 people signed up for the first games and 70 per cent of them are still playing through GameOn India’s platform.

Big start

The Commonwealth Games were a blessing in disguise. Stadiums were in good condition and were easily available. GameOn’s first match was held at Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi, the only FIFA-approved stadium in India. About 30 people came up for a series spread over four weekends.

“These guys started playing together as a team even if they do not play on our team. Even on weekends, when we do not have a game scheduled for them, they would go out and play. Some of them created team Facebook pages. Clearly this is something they require and we filled the void,” says Zeba.

Now, about 400-500 people come and play through the platform every month.

Zeba and Adnan invested Rs 60 lakh of their money. This went into creating an interactive web portal. The games were all photographed and pictures were uploaded on the Web site, which could be shared with an individual’s Facebook account. Marketing was done at shopping malls. Equipment was bought and personnel for office to help during the games were taken on board. In addition, an angel investor invested Rs 65 lakh and the promoters increased their investment to Rs 1 crore.

“We were hoping to breakeven by the end of year two and we are on track (to meet the goal). We will break even by March next year. This year, we are targeting a turnover of Rs 4 crore,” says Zeba.

GameOn plans to have offices in Bangalore next year and in Pune and Hyderabad thereafter while it will expand through franchisees in other cities.

> siddhartha.s@thehindu.co.in

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