New Delhi, Aug 11 : Backed by Dabur India Chairman Amit Burman, Mind Sports League is revolutionising traditional poker and has launched a one-stop solution for everything poker -- Hashtag Poker. A flagship product of the parent company, the gaming application provides a platform for all the poker enthusiasts to learn, play and watch all in one place in a completely risk-free environment. Considering the thriving growth of the gaming industry globally and in India, Hashtag Poker aims to create a whole ecosystem by introducing novel technologies, products and platforms that help an individual grow across aspects. Akshay Chachra, Co-founder, Business Head & CFO, Mind Sports League Pvt Ltd, believes in making poker a fun and interactive mode of sport, with strong digital presence. "Poker is more of a lifestyle which helps in developing life skills such as decision making, hiring, financial planning, job interviews, risk appetite, etc. Since poker is a relatively new game in India, we feel that the adoption and the growth potential of Poker is immense considering 65 per cent of the population comprises GEN Z and Millennials. "In fact, poker has been seeing an upward trend and is growing better than other card games in India. As per industry sources, the Indian gaming industry is projected to grow over 31.7 per cent year-on-year due to the growth of digital infrastructure and the significant rise in the quality and engagement of gaming content. Moreover, the gaming industry in India is set to be valued at $3.5 billion by 2023, exceeding the Bollywood revenues by $0.8 billion," Chachra said. The industry is becoming more immersive, social and recreating every passing day. To further boost the growth and bridge the gap in the poker industry on how people interact with each other, the application offers a breakthrough feature of live video format. The first of its kind initiative ensures seamless experience in social bonding activities and offers young aspirants to participate in the biggest freeroll tourneys. The application also serves as India's first Poker learning aggregator platform where users get best in class poker coaches offering structured courses, live streaming, personalize coaching etc. Besides this, users also get to test their progress in fun and interactive ways through 2,500+ times puzzles, rewards and leaderboards. Over the years, India has seen a remarkable growth in the poker industry via poker leagues to value-driven collaborations which led to a massive growth for the poker operators. But, it is important for the gamers to be well-versed with the sport and play responsibly. Explaining the need of this new age poker platform that offers unique features for poker enthusiasts, Chachra said, "A lot of people who start playing the sport actually face a lack of knowledge and understanding of the game. To solve this, we have introduced a new concept that will enable poker enthusiasts to ace the game by personalised coaching sessions, structured courses and watching other pro players. The idea is to build an ecosystem which comes to aid the entire poker ecosystem." Moreover, as the parent company, Mind Sports League has built a unique ecosystem with its three entities -- Hashtag Poker, Hashtag Productions and Poker Sports League, and introduced tournaments and video poker, at the same time allowing the players to create their own private tables, and play with their friends and family for free on the platform. Hashtag Poker further plans to host the biggest tourneys in association with various colleges, clubs, corporate leagues like IIMs, IITs, YPOs, consulting firms, startups etc., which will be free besides rewarding the players. Furthermore, it is the only platform that streams exclusive content allowing the users to access all poker shows, free webinars, connect with poker players across the globe along with other engaging and entertaining content around poker. The free-to-play Hashtag Poker app is available on Apple App Store and Google Play and can also be downloaded from the website. /IANS