Across the globe, companies were forced to find, adapt and adjust to new systems of operating under the restrictions and guidelines brought into play due to the global pandemic. We ( at Baazi Games) had to devise a quick strategy that allowed our employees to work from home while maintaining the standards of service that we demand of ourselves and our users expect from us. Some of our marquee campaigns such as the National Poker Series [NPS] which was announced to take place in the live poker room in Goa were already underway and all the arrangements were done. However, after taking stock of the situation and keeping the safety of our players and staff in mind, we decided to postpone the event prior to the announcement of nationwide lockdown. Similarly, BalleBaazi.com, which is our fantasy sports vertical, came to a complete standstill due to the cancellation of all live sporting events across the world. We had to ideate and execute a plan that allowed us to engage with our users on the platform while simultaneously shifting our operations to a work from home environment. The Virtual Fantasy League, which was created in partnership with FanBlaze – a must-watch YouTube channel for any sports fan – was one of the strategies that we devised for customer retention while shifting from WFO to WFH.
Specific Challenges
There were multiple challenges, specific to the workings and operations of the different departments in the company, that we needed to address in order to keep everything running efficiently.
For a Real Money Game [RMG] operator, the security and privacy of our user data is of the utmost importance. When we were shifting our operations towards WFH, we had to replicate our entire security system by creating a local network that allowed our staff to access the data required to keep our operations running smoothly on a secure VPN.
Similarly, the tech team had to adapt their way of working to a digital environment which allowed to plan new modules digitally on a secure platform. Baazi Games implemented Slack that has served as a handy tool for planning and executing campaigns in real-time.
We also helped support our employees in procuring local workstations required to perform their roles.
Productivity Issues
Our top-level management and team leaders had to devise new processes in order for employees from different departments to get in sync with each one of them and ensure that everyone followed the steps necessary in order to make a specific campaign, product or technological feature successful.
This was especially difficult as the brainstorming and campaign designing sessions tend to be more fruitful when done in a WFO environment as people can bounce ideas off each other and come up with something special.
While we did manage to hit our goals, we felt it was a lot more time consuming to get the desired results in a WFH setting.
Addressing Challenges
We’ve been lucky to be blessed with a team that is extremely motivated and has taken initiative in ensuring the continuing success of the company and its different verticals. In order to maintain this level of commitment and ensure that our employees know that we’ve noticed the work that they’ve put in over this challenging period, we’ve been conducting regular online Townhall meetings where we highlight the best performers in the company and keep them updated with everything that’s going on throughout the business. We’ve also held engaging activities, such as an online poker tournament for all employees and helped in making festivals such as Diwali a bit easier for everybody by distributing gift vouchers that would enable them to gift something special to their loved ones.
New ways of working, and learnings for future – 2021 and beyond.
One of the challenges we faced was getting new recruits up to speed with the way we work. It was tough for them to adapt to our systems and processes during WFH as in an offline setup it gets easier to introduce a new recruit to the team and they can understand the role and requirements in a more comprehensive manner.
The other challenges we faced revolved around planning and brainstorming campaigns that we plan to execute in the coming year. It is always easier to conceptualize a new campaign when the team is sitting together in the same room as the energy is infectious and people are more focused on the job at hand whereas in a WFH environment, it comparatively difficult to replicate that same level of commitment and focus.
However, despite these challenges, our team still managed to do some remarkable work and pull off campaigns such as EndBoss, one of India’s biggest poker tournaments till date and the launch of the Private Cash Tables feature on the PokerBaazi.com platform during the Diwali season while on the other hand our fantasy vertical team successfully conducted the Indian T20 series by running various leagues and lucrative offerings on the platform, adding another 2 million unique users to BalleBaazi.com. RummyBaazi team also maintained a consistent growth during these tough times while also pulling in seeding in the company in the month of August 2020. The team really pulled together during this unpredictable time and helped us scale new heights.
Author Profile:
Navkiran Singh, Founder & CEO, Baazi Games
Navkiran Singh is the Founder & CEO of Baazi Games, which has a variety of online games and came into existence in 2014 with its first flagship product, PokerBaazi. Baazi Games is an online gaming hub offering users Fantasy Sports, Online Poker & Rummy, along with an e-com portal, Casino Kart that deals exclusively in Casino products.
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