Ace2Three.com: The King of Rummy
Date: Wednesday , November 04, 2009
Many big companies started just from one great idea, a thought that is different or unique, which fulfills the demand and interest of many people. Ace2Three.com is one such company, whose Founder and CEO, Deepak Gullapalli saw the need of an online portal to play India’s most favorite card game, Rummy. Being a huge fan of Rummy himself, he saw many people playing card games in their room with friends even when he was in the U.K. Inspired by this background he founded his company solely to help Rummy enthusiasts to play online.
“I started this company to bring Rummy online. I had seen a lot of Indians playing Rummy in their rooms. It’s a fun family card game that everyone enjoys,” says Gullapalli. Being the first to bring this popular card game online, the game soon gained popularity on the Internet and in no time the gaming portal had thousands of players playing with family and friends for hours every day.
Founded in 2006, Ace2Three focused on online card games. Gullapalli says, “We have basically made a platform where different games can be played. You can even play chess on this platform but we have kept our focus on Rummy. This game is played throughout India and there are different sets of rules in different regions. Keeping this in mind we have developed five different versions of Rummy.” Just within a span of three years, this gaming portal has managed to increase its team from just two people to 20 and currently has 35,000 registered users with 1,600 people logging in daily.
It is quite easy to get started. A user just has to visit Ace2Three.com and register. He then needs to download the application which will allow him to play this game with other registered users. There are five different versions and two levels of this game. A user can play for free on the practice table with his friends but will not win any prizes. On the premium table a user has to pay a minimum fee and can bet from a minimum of Rs. 25 to a maximum of Rs. 1,000. A user can also periodically enter organized tournaments and win lots of prizes and points. Recently, Ace2Three had organized a Diwali special tournament where players could play for free and also win lots of prizes and money. Whatever money a user wins will be sent to him through a cheque, or a user can use his ‘Real Chips’ for a mobile cash voucher powered by GiftMate.
The portal is designed to accommodate new games, player communities like chat and forums, shopping mall, and targeted advertising. The premium users are the source of revenue for the company; and advertising has not been used for revenue so far, but they plan to do so in the future, according to Gullapalli.
The Supreme Court of India has declared that Rummy is a game of skill and hence is legal to play. Games of skill or mere skill are excluded from the applicability of laws prohibiting betting and gambling. All gaming activity on Ace2Three are monitored on a 24/7 basis with data being stored for all player transactions through a high end intelligent system built on secure servers.
“A user needs to download this game to play, but we are working on a download-less version. In a few weeks time we will also be launching this game on Facebook and soon on other social networking sites,” says Gullapalli. |