India, July 31 -- In early 2024, as the IPL was underway and the country edged closer to the General Elections, a new breed of gaming apps surged in popularity, urging Indians to stake money on their opinions. Leading this pack was Probo, a platform that let users trade opinions on real-world outcomes - everything from "Will Rohit Sharma score a century?" to "Will this candidate win this seat?"

The model was simple: Get users to trade on the binary outcomes of future events. It also included innocuous questions like "Will it rain in Delhi tomorrow?". Users pay a fee and buy into an opinion i.e. either invest in a yes or a no. The payout depends on the outcome, but also on the number of people backing the outcome.

At its peak, Probo was ...