‘5 Star Indian Online League’ attracts over 1.5 million gamers

‘5 Star Indian Online League’, one of the world’s largest online cricket leagues, has claimed to have attracted over 1.5 million gamers to take part in the League on one and half months. The ‘5 Star Indian Online League’ is a joint collaboration between Zapak.com, one of India’s leading online gaming portal, and Cadburys, and is aimed at taking cricket enthusiasts to experience the sport at a different level altogether.

The participants had eight teams to choose from and the online tournament was based on leader board format. After the user chose his/her league, he/she had to play two cricket games – bowling and batting – to attain a high score in both (collectively).

Eleven top gamers with the highest scores qualified for the Grand Finale, which was held on August 4, 2009, in Mumbai at the Zapak Gameplex. Vishal Singh from Pune was crowned the winner of the 5 Star Indian online League.

Board of Zapak Cricket in India (BZCI) is said to control game ratings, write game reviews for every game, select game of the week, select daily poll, pick hot cricketing topic of the week, expert blogs (write with Krish Srikanth), test new cricket games, etc.

Rohit Sharma, COO, Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd, said, “We are extremely happy with the overwhelming response for 5 Star Indian Online League. After watching all the cricket tournaments and leagues in the offline mode, this online league has helped all cricket lovers to enjoy the sport even more by participating in it themselves. With such a positive response, we intend to provide more such opportunities for our gamers on regular basis.”

Sanjay Purohit, Director – Marketing, Cadbury India, said “We were looking at a novel way to reach the online audience and engaging them. India is a cricket frenzy nation, where cricket is a religion and the 5 Star Indian Online League gave cricket lovers a chance to be part of an actually cricket league and represent their city.”

Zapak is one of India’s largest gaming companies that address the complete value chain for online gaming. With currently over 6.5 million registered gamers, Zapak.com claims to be amongst the top gaming sites in the world. Zapak Games, the licensing and merchandising arm of Zapak has created one of India’s largest retail distribution networks with presence in over 4,000 retail outlets across 50 cities across India.