Ten days after being temporarily delisted from the Google Play Store, Paytm has reintroduced the 'Paytm Cricket League' cashback offer on its app with necessary changes. Paytm has implemented a few changes in the deployment of the Cricket League, which is in-sync with the Play Store guidelines and does not violate any gambling policy.
According to Paytm, users will continue to get surprise Cricket Player Cards on each transaction and earn cashback on collecting them. However, the deployment of the cashback campaign has changed. Earlier users collected cricket-based stickers by doing payment transactions like recharges, money transfers, bill payments etc. and upon collection of a certain number of stickers, they could win sweepstake cashback. They could even gift stickers to their friends and receive them too. Users can now collect as many player cards as possible, add them to the Paytm Cricket Album and earn a cashback of up to Rs 1,000 on the completion of the player card.
"In the previous version, users were given free stickers on doing certain transactions. Upon collection of a certain number of free stickers, users were given some cashback. Users could also use these free stickers to be part of a free contest. In the current version, users are given free stickers on doing certain transactions and upon collection of a certain number of stickers they get cashback," a Paytm spokesperson said.
While the email written to Google on this matter went unanswered, sources at Google India confirmed, "It wasn't the cashback campaign but the implementation of the same that violated Play Store gambling policy earlier. The current revised cashback campaign reintroduced by Paytm is not based on daily fantasy sport."
As per Google, offering cashback and vouchers alone do not constitute a violation of Google Play gambling policies. But at the same time, Play Store policies don't allow online casinos or support any unregulated gambling apps that facilitate sports betting, including daily fantasy sports in India.
"We enforce our policies very thoughtfully to provide a safe and secure experience for consumers, while also giving developers the platform and tools they need to build sustainable businesses. In the case of repeated policy violations, we may take more serious action which may include terminating Google Play Developer accounts," Google had said in a statement.
On September 18, the Paytm payments and financial services app was temporarily delisted from the Google Play Store citing Play Store's gambling policy violation. But as Paytm complied with the concerns by removing the UPI cashback and scratch card campaign, the app returned to the Play Store within a few hours. While the reason Google cited was gambling, Paytm accused Google of not offering a level playing field. The issue escalated after Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS) asked for clarity from Google on what's allowed on the Play Store for the Fantasy Sports industry.
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