Daybreak Why India’s online gaming ban could hit Razorpay and PhonePe harder than you think
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Sep 8, 2025 India's recent online gaming ban has sent shockwaves through the payment industry, impacting giants like Razorpay and PhonePe. These companies, once thriving on gaming-related revenues, now face a significant financial hit, with some losing up to 30% of their net income. The podcast delves into the broader ramifications for these fintechs, their quest for alternative growth strategies, and how this sudden shift could reshape the payments landscape in India.
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Gaming As A High-Margin Engine
- Payment aggregators charged gaming merchants far higher fees than e-commerce due to perceived risk, boosting margins significantly.
- Gaming became a fast, high-margin growth engine that scaled transaction volumes for firms like Razorpay and PhonePe.
Payouts Were Built For Gaming
- Aggregators built payout products primarily to service real-money gaming winners and processed huge monthly payout volumes.
- These payouts and tailored products made gaming especially valuable beyond simple deposit fees.
Material Revenue Exposure
- Gaming accounted for up to 3–30% of net revenue at firms like Razorpay and similar shares at Cashfree, making its loss material.
- Losing that stream will force IPO-bound fintechs to replace volumes and margins fast amid intense competition.