Founder admits “For 16 yrs, everyone advised against this idea”

In the wake of India’s newly handed laws banning on-line money-based video games, Probo co-founders Sachin Gupta and Ashish Garg have bid an emotional farewell to their platform, marking the top of one of many nation’s most controversial opinion buying and selling platform. The firm has now initated shedding staff.

On Thursday, the Opinion Trading platform Probo shut its enterprise operations in India. The transfer comes after the federal government moved in the direction of banning all actual cash on-line video games within the nation. The platform was already reeling beneath stress on account of Directorate of Enforcement raids and a number of authorized instances pending in High Court and apex court docket.

Probo talked about on its app, “In light of recent developments, we have paused all recharge activities in your best interest. We request you to withdraw your funds.”

Storyboard18 had first reported that Opinion buying and selling platforms can be banned beneath the brand new laws Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill.

Sources point out that Probo has began shedding staff and lots of are on discover intervals until closing means of withdrawals from customers, vendor funds, authorized obligations and full and closing settlements takes place. A supply mentioned, “The company is planning to pivot and are laying a new strategy for the Indian market. The company is also planning operations in foreign markets where opinion trading is permissible.”

In a media assertion, Probo acknowledged, “As unfortunate as it is, we respect the government of India’s latest Online Gaming bill. In light of this development, Probo has decided to discontinue its real-money gaming (RMG) operations with immediate effect until further notice. We remain steadfast in our vision to innovate and build information markets from India, for the world.”

Sachin Gupta, founding father of Probo, took to LinkedIn to replicate on the corporate’s journey and its eventual closure.
“Much has been said about Probo and the online money gaming industry. We fully accept the Government of India’s decision, and though tough for the team, we make our peace with it. For 16 years, almost everyone advised me against this idea—today they seem right. Love to all who cared and still do,” Gupta wrote.

He added, “Still, I must share why we did what we did. This note has long sat in drafts; today feels right to release it—as a Friday read, in hope another dreamer may pick it up over the next 16 years!”

Founded on the concept of “information markets,” Probo provided customers tradable “yes/no” contracts based mostly on particular occasions—starting from India’s GDP projections to coverage outcomes—basically turning public opinion and forecasts into monetary devices. While critics dismissed it as betting, Gupta argued that such markets represented a radical leap for finance, likening them to the foundational pillars of inventory markets, banking, and insurance coverage, all of which depend on chances and forecasting.

Gupta positioned data markets as a possible cornerstone of the “information era,” or gyaan-yug, the place collective intelligence might ship correct, dynamic, and extensively accessible forecasts. However, he admitted that regardless of the imaginative and prescient, the corporate fell quick in execution.

His co-founder, Ashish Garg, shared a extra poetic farewell message.
“The night is dark and hope burns low, but time will turn, and a new dawn will rise. Thanks to all who supported us and to those who didn’t, but made us learn,” Garg wrote.

The closure of Probo highlights the sweeping impression of India’s regulatory clampdown on on-line gaming and opinion buying and selling platforms, as policymakers tighten controls on actions categorized as speculative or betting. For Probo’s founders, the choice marks each an ending and, maybe, an invite for future entrepreneurs to reimagine the area.