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Tech layoffs 2025: The biggest job cuts in Silicon Valley and beyond
EXCLUSIVE: A23 parent Head Digital Works lays off 500 employees after real money gaming ban
The company said that it will focus on protecting its remaining workforce, exploring new business opportunities, and pursuing its legal battle to safeguard not only its own survival but also the future of India’s online skill gaming industry.
Head Digital Works is majority-owned by Canadian private equity firm Clairvest and operates popular platforms such as A23 Rummy, A23 Poker, and Cricket.com, claiming a user base of more than 70 million registered players.
Hyderabad-based Head Digital Works, parent company of the popular online gaming platform A23, has laid off nearly 500 employees—close to two-thirds of its workforce—after the Indian government enacted the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, which bans all forms of real money online gaming. The decision, announced during a company-wide town hall on Thursday, leaves only around 200 employees with the company.
The layoffs mark one of the largest workforce reductions in India’s fast-growing gaming sector and underscore the wide-reaching impact of the new legislation, which has brought the ₹23,440 crore online skill gaming industry to a grinding halt.
Confirming the development, Siddharth Sharma, Chief Executive Officer of Head Digital Works, told Storyboard18 that the company had prioritized employee welfare despite the drastic cuts. “Head Digital Works has taken an employee first approach and paid a min of a 3 months severance for over 3/4th of its employees. Some of our more tenured employees have been given between 6-9 months of pay (incl of their stat dues). We retain a workforce of close to 200 across workstreams of most of our best who have chosen to fight for a future,” Sharma said.
He further added, “We remain humbly grounded and optimistic of a path to regulation and reconciliation based on the outcomes of the judicial process. We are also evaluating multiple alternative opportunities within and beyond gaming to build another business for the future. We remain indebted and grateful to all of those individuals who helped us build this company to where it is today.”
Head Digital Works is majority-owned by Canadian private equity firm Clairvest and operates popular platforms such as A23 Rummy, A23 Poker, and Cricket.com, claiming a user base of more than 70 million registered players. Just earlier this year, the company had expanded its footprint in the sector by acquiring Deltatech Gaming—the real-money gaming unit of Delta Corp—for ₹491 crore in a cash-and-stock deal. Deltatech runs Adda52, one of India’s oldest online poker platforms.
However, the passage of the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, has drastically altered the landscape for real-money gaming operators. The legislation criminalizes online money games, including poker and rummy, treating them on par with betting and gambling. The bill was introduced and cleared in Parliament within two days, without public consultation or debate, raising concerns among industry stakeholders.
Head Digital Works has already mounted a legal challenge. The company has filed a writ petition in the Karnataka High Court seeking to strike down several provisions of the Act, arguing that Sections 2(1)(g), 5, 6, 7, and 9 are unconstitutional, arbitrary, and violative of fundamental rights under Articles 14, 19, and 21 of the Indian Constitution. The petition further contends that Parliament lacked the legislative competence to impose a blanket prohibition on skill-based games.
The company has also emphasized the broader economic fallout. According to its court filing, the law not only endangers more than two lakh jobs across the online gaming sector but also threatens to disrupt both foreign and domestic investment while undermining India’s standing as one of the world’s fastest-growing gaming markets.
Until then, the company says it will focus on protecting its remaining workforce, exploring new business opportunities, and pursuing its legal battle to safeguard not only its own survival but also the future of India’s online skill gaming industry.
Real money Gaming platforms MPL, Games 24x7, PokerBaazi have laid off hundreds of their employees after the ban.
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