MUMBAI: Anil Ambani’s Reliance ADA Group has launched its $1 million online casual gaming portal called zapak.com in association with Bollywood actor Salman Khan. The company plans to invest $100 million in this venture over the next three years.

While Salman admits that he is not much of a gamer, he also adds, “There is a gamer in each one of us. Gaming has the potential of becoming the next big passion in this country. Association with zapak.com would give me a platform to showcase my creativity. Besides featuring in games on Bollywood stars, including me, I will also conceptualize some of the games.”

A zone on Salman Khan would be created on the portal, which will host games on him. He would also work with the Zapak team to conceptualize some of the games. The first game, already available on the site, is titled ‘Puppy-razzi’ and features in it Salman and his two dogs My Jaan and My Son. Other games featuring Salman are also in the pipeline.

Announcing the launch of the website Reliance Entertainment president Rajesh Sawhney said, “The gaming market is expected to grow to $ 200 million by 2010. Therefore gaming is an important part of our entertainment strategy and we are investing $ 100 million in this venture over the next three years.”

He further added, “In future there is likelihood for conceptualizing games for movies that are presented by Adlabs since it also a part of the Reliance ADA Group.”

Talking about Zapak and its plans, Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd COO Rohit Sharma said, “The first phase of our launch would focus on establishing India’s largest online casual gaming portal, Zapak.com. The portal would offer the largest catalog of titles across all the genres. We would also offer unique Score Capture facility, which further augments the competitive gaming spirit and allows lots of contests. In the second phase of roll out, Zapak would introduce Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs).”

Talking about the marketing aspect of the brand, Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd. chief marketing officer Arun Mehra said, “We firmly believe that there is no non-gamer. Gaming is the essence of our lives, even if it is competing to get ahead at a traffic signal. Zapak is young, irreverent, hi-tech, Fun and gets you gaming. We are launching our online gaming portal on 25 November 2006, backed by a 360 degree marketing campaign.”

The gaming portal has been launched with over 150 games and would become more than double by the end of this year. Currently the genre of games available on the site includes action, puzzle, arcade, strategy, racing, sports and also multiplayer free-to-play games.