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When we were kids, it wasn’t hard to find mates to play with. One just had to introduce themselves to the neighbourhood kids playing gully cricket, and the bat would soon make its way to your hands.

However, as adults, finding someone to play with who has the same proficiency in the sport can be challenging.

“Playing sports can be really hard. The question is who do you play with… even if you play with a group of friends, sometimes they might not even be of the same skill level,” says Sudeep Kulkarni, Founder of Game Theory, in a conversation with YourStory. 

Seeking out a solution, he, along with Sukrut Gejji and Saket Gejji, founded Game Theory in 2018. The 14-membered sports-tech startup helps users find players who match their skill level in a particular sport. 

The Bengaluru-based startup currently offers athletic matchmaking for badminton, swimming, and squash.

Solving for skill

Skill is one of the most important factors that determines the quality of a game.

Game Theory first measures people’s skill levels on the court through the computer vision technology available on its smart courts. While other players broadly define skill level as beginner, intermediate, or expert, the startup takes it one step further by video-recording and analysing the player’s sporting skills. The scores are determined by the team based on their ability to improve the game.

“Think of it like a score you might get on chess.com, like 1600, 1800 etc; it only improves the longer you play a game,” Kulkarni says.

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Game Theory’s smart badminton court. Source: Game Theory Website.

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Over 17,000 users are currently using its smart courts across the startup’s nine locations in Bengaluru.

While the company analyses huge amounts of data, it also ensures data privacy.

“The information provided by you is stored in access-controlled facilities with restricted access. Your information that is transmitted over the internet is protected through the use of encryption using secure protocols,” he explains.

To build on its matchmaking abilities, Game Theory recently acquired Matchday.ai, a sports analytics company that automates data collection.

“So far, the transition has been smooth because the vision is very strong from the founders… we now have the capacity because of the acquisition of the Matchday team… with this AI coming in, we would be able to deliver some incredible experiences to our users,” Kulkarni adds. 

It offers an app for both Android and iOS users, and has a 4.5 rating on Google Play Store. The app allows users to track their performance besides booking games and courts. It also enables users to post the recording of their match on social media.

Having Rainmatter on the captable

The company picked up $2 million in a seed funding round in October last year led by Rainmatter Capital. Incidentally, Kulkarni’s first interaction with Zerodha and Rainmatter Founder Nithin Kamath happened on a smart court when the two entrepreneurs were playing a game of badminton. 

“We wanted them to experience our smart court technology… once we played the game, we sort of connected on the problem and the objective,” he recalls. 

Kamath has been actively involved with the startup even post-investment, says Kulkarni, who previously founded The Tribe Fitness, a gym based in Bengaluru that was acquired by Cult.fit.

What’s next for Game Theory?

The sports-tech market in India is nascent, to say the least. The sector is large and diverse, with the global sports technology market expected to hit $40.6 billion in 2026, as per a report by MarketsandMarkets. 

While Playo is another sports-tech startup that lets players find each other as well as book venues to play together, Game Theory sets itself apart with its matchmaking abilities and the scoring feature which gives players a specialised rank. Kulkarni tells YourStory that the company earns a revenue of Rs 50 lakh a month consistently, and the number is likely to grow once Game Theory opens more centres.

However, expanding to other cities is not on the cards as of now.

“We are Bengaluru-based and will continue to be Bengaluru-based,” says Kulkarni. “We go to existing facilities and sort of take over and manage those facilities completely. At the moment, we have a strong presence in the city and will try to grow here for the next six months.”

Game Theory’s tech will soon be expandable to any sport that is played by a racquet, says Kulkarni. “We’ll primarily go after established sports like badminton and tennis, which are racquet sports. Then we’ll look at the other exciting sports like paddle tennis, for example,” he adds.