Google has warned Zomato that its app would be removed from the Play Store for offering users a chance win “real money worth prizes” based on outcomes in real world tournaments. Such offers violate Play Store policies on real money gaming and contests, per Google. A similar notice has been sent to Swiggy. This was first reported by The Economic Times. The game in question is the Zomato Pro League, an IPL-specific campaign, that rewards users with cashbacks for correctly predicting outcomes of IPL matches. Users have to correctly answer questions about upcoming or ongoing matches, such as which team could win and how many sixes would be scored in the match. This presumably violated Google’s policies, which disallow features that let users wager “to obtain a prize of real world monetary value”. It's worth noting that Zomato had run this campaign last year as well. Google said Zomato needed to make “appropriate changes” by October 1 and submit an update, or it would be removed from the Play Store. “Yes, we have received a notice from Google. We believe that the notice is unfair, but we are a small company and have already realigned our business strategy to comply with Google’s guidelines. We will be replacing Zomato Premier League with a more exciting program by this weekend,” Zomato said in a statement. Swiggy was also offering cashbacks for correct IPL predictions: With IPL 2020 kicking off, Swiggy also started its Match Day Mania campaign on September 17, with multiple…
