SoStronk Referral Code

Almost every gaming page on this site now ends in the same prohibition. SoStronk is the exception worth reading carefully, because esports is genuinely carved out of India's Online Gaming Act — on five conditions that most people repeating the exemption have never read.

SoStronk has run competitive gaming in India since 2014, starting with low-latency Counter-Strike servers out of Bengaluru and later hosting BGMI and Free Fire tournaments, including free-entry ones. It also partnered with MPL to bring casual competitions onto the platform. Among everything in this category it has the strongest claim to being esports rather than gambling wearing esports clothing — which makes it the right page on which to explain what the exemption actually says, because the version circulating in most coverage is wrong.

The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 prohibits online money games. It does not prohibit competitive gaming, and it is not hostile to the sector — its stated purpose includes promoting esports and online social games. But the definition of esports in the Act is specific, and it has five limbs. An esports title is one that is played as part of multi-sports events; consists of organised competitive events between individuals or teams in multiplayer formats governed by predefined rules; is duly recognised under the National Sports Governance Act, 2025 and registered with the Authority or agency; has an outcome determined solely by physical dexterity, mental agility, strategic thinking or similar player skills; and may include payment of registration or participation fees solely for the purpose of entering tournaments.

Two consequences follow, and they point in opposite directions.

The favourable one: a registered esports title may lawfully charge entry fees. That is written into the definition, and it means the exemption is not confined to free tournaments. Prize money and paid entry are both compatible with esports status.

The demanding one: the exemption is a registration status, not a genre. Being a real competitive game with skilled players and predefined rules is necessary and not sufficient. Recognition under the National Sports Governance Act, 2025 and registration with the Authority are separate requirements that a platform either has or does not have for a given title, and a cancelled registration costs the provider eligibility for the promotion and support the framework offers. Esports now sits under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, which is a meaningful change of status — competitive gaming is administered as sport rather than tolerated as entertainment.

So the honest position on any paid tournament, here or anywhere, is that its lawfulness depends on the title's registration rather than on how skilful the game is. This page is not going to guess at a particular title's status, or tell you that a platform's paid ladders are fine because the games are skill-based — the statute deliberately declines to treat skill as the test, as batches 41 to 43 set out at length.

What you can rely on: free-entry tournaments involve no fee, no deposit and no stake, and therefore sit outside the definition of an online money game entirely. SoStronk has run those. If you are choosing where to spend time competitively, that is the unambiguous part of the picture, and the referral is a minor detail beside it.