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Home challenge for RCB, host Kings XI
Bengaluru: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), playing their penultimate home game, would be hoping the rain stays away on Wednesday when they take on cellar-dwellers Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League (IPL) tie here.
With nine points from as many games, RCB will drop to fifth spot after Tuesday’s game between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils, both on eight, while Kings XI have just four from nine matches with two wins and seven defeats.
RCB have won just one out of four completed games here and their only win was in a rain-affected 10-overs-a-side match against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) last weekend. And rain may again play spoilsport as the Met Office has forecast four days of “thunderstorm/squall accompanied by hailstones”.
Also, following their crushing loss to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Chepauk on Monday, Virat Kohli’s RCB need to quickly regroup and ensure they do not drop any more points if they hope to finish in top-four and thus qualify for the play-offs.
After Wednesday’s game, the Royal Challengers will be visiting Mumbai, Mohali and Hyderabad over five days before hosting Daredevils in their last league match on May 17. Thus, every outing will be critical to RCB’s play-off chances.
Meanwhile, last year’s runners-up Kings XI Punjab are in the midst of a tailspin following five consecutive losses. The Mohali outfit’s fall has been quite dramatic and as spectacular as Glen Maxwell’s batting was last season when the Aussie smashed 528 runs at a strike rate of 187.75, as compared to just 74 (SR 134.54) in six games this year and barely able to hold his position in the playing eleven.
In fact, Kings XI’s tepid performance this season is about the failure of not just Maxwell, but also of their other key batsmen like opener Virender Sehwag, who last year was among the top run-getters with a tally of 455, including a knock of 122.
Also contributing to the sorry state of George Bailey’s team has been the bowling that has appeared toothless with spearhead Mitchell Johnson nowhere near his best. The Aussie quick has taken nine wickets in eight matches, but with an economy rate of 9.20.
Wednesday’s game is the first of three away matches for Kings XI, who then conclude their league campaign hosting RCB and CSK. Though, their hopes of a play-off berth appear non-existent, they have the potential to trip the best of IPL teams, and RCB would do well to bear this in mind.
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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