Terms of Service

Agreement

We strongly advise you to read our Terms of Service carefully and understand them well before using our website/mobile app (hereinafter referred to as “Website”/”Mobile App”) or any of our services, including Howzat games, software and all Howzat services (hereinafter collectively referred to as “Services”). All the clauses in the Howzat Terms of Service are delineated below and included in the medium of reference that can be accessed by clicking on the related links. You must make sure that you have read and understood our Agreement, including our Terms of Service, well before becoming a user of Howzat. By registering on Howzat, you agree to follow our Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and all game rules and contest terms (hereinafter collectively referred to as “Game Rules”). You are completely bound by our Terms of Service in any instance when you choose to use any part of our Services. We reserve the right to modify and amend our Terms of Service at any time. When we make any changes to our Terms of Service, we will update the Terms of Service on our Website/Mobile App to incorporate such changes. We will try to inform you of the changes/revisions by sending you a notice at your email address registered with us. However, it shall be solely your responsibility to stay updated on our Terms of Service by reviewing them on our Website/Mobile App from time to time. We may make changes to our Terms of Service in order to amend or change any of our policies and/or game rules. If you do not agree to the changes made, you may cease your use of our Services of online fantasy games by informing us that you want to get your account deactivated. If you continue to use our Services after any amendments or changes, it will be assumed that you have read and understood the changes made to our Terms of Service and you agree to our new Terms of Service.

Warranty

Howzat aims to provide information that is accurate, complete, and reliable at the time of publishing or posting it. However, Howzat makes no representations about the correctness, completeness or suitability of any information published on its Website/App or contained in its Services or any documents. All the information and related graphics are provided on an as is basis without warranty of any kind, express or implied. Howzat hereby disclaims all warranties with regard to such information, including all implied warranties and conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement. Regardless of Howzat’s efforts to provide its users with the Services of the highest quality, Howzat does not provide users with any warranty or representation whatsoever regarding the quality, fitness for purpose, completeness, merchantability, non-infringement or accuracy of its Services, software, Website, Mobile App or fantasy sports games. Howzat makes no warranty that its Services, including but not limited to, software, Website, Mobile App, games and servers, will be uninterrupted, timely or error-free, that defects will be corrected or that the features and Services provided therein will be free from viruses or bugs of any kind. Howzat reserves the right to determine, at its sole discretion, whether it is responsible for any malfunction or disruption. Howzat reserves the right to limit your tournament/game participation or terminate your account in case it determines that you have intentionally caused a malfunction or disruption in its Website, Mobile App or Services. Howzat is not liable for any potential winnings from any unfinished tournaments or unfinished online fantasy sports games. Howzat will not compensate the user for any potential winnings in any unfinished contest, game or tournament under any circumstances.

Use of Software

Commercial use of our software is strictly forbidden. Users are only allowed to use the software for their personal entertainment. Under no circumstances shall users be permitted to use their Howzat.com accounts for any purposes other than playing Howzat games for entertainment. Users may not attempt to modify, decompile, reverse-engineer or disassemble Howzat software in any way. The use of artificial intelligence including, without limitation, robots is strictly forbidden in connection with the Howzat software and games. All actions taken in relation to fantasy sports games by users must be executed personally by users using the user interface accessible through Howzat software.

Your Password, Your Responsibility

After you have registered on our Website or Mobile App, it is solely your responsibility to keep your password absolutely confidential. Make sure you do not share your password with anybody, be it your family, friends or anyone else. Howzat is not responsible in any way if your user account is logged in to or accessed by anybody else using your password.

Eligibility and Jurisdiction Policy

• Our Contests (games, tournaments, leagues and contests) are meant only for persons aged 18 or older.
• The Contests are meant only for persons residing in India at the time of participation.
• Howzat may, in accordance with the laws prevailing in certain Indian states, bar people who reside in such Indian states from participating in any Contests. Currently people who reside in the Indian states of Assam, Odisha, Telangana, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Andhra Pradesh may not participate in any paid or cash Contests on Howzat.com, as the laws of the aforementioned states prohibit the residents of the states from participating in real money games online.
• Only those users who have successfully registered on Howzat.com as well as registered for a contest prior to its each round in accordance with the Contest rules and the conditions outlined above will be eligible to participate in the Contest and win any prizes.

Breach and Consequences

If your breach our Terms of Service or use our website/Mobile App in a fraudulent manner or for illegal and/ or unlawful purposes or cheat us and/ or any user or cause wrongful communication implicating us including false or incorrect chargeback claim or claims and/or that your continued access to our Website/Mobile App is detrimental to the interests of Howzat.com or our users or the general public,(“disallowed activities”) then we reserve the right to take one or all of the actions below at our own discretion and without prior notice, each of which will be without prejudice to each other :

• Temporarily suspend your account;
• Permanently terminate/ block your account;
• Initiate relevant proceedings under law;
• In addition to the above, if you undertake any disallowed activities, Howzat shall be entitled to treat as void and non est all activities undertaken by you on our platform and withhold and/or retain any and all monies lying in the account associated with the disallowed activity (“amount”). Howzat may, at its discretion, withhold the amount in entirety or withhold such portion of the amount which is attributable to the disallowed activity. If Howzat, at its discretion, decides to withhold the amount partially, Howzat will return the portion that is not withheld to the source. You acknowledge that you cannot claim any compensation or consideration when the above actions are taken against your account if you undertake disallowed activities.

Any action taken by us will be without any prejudice to our other rights and remedies that are mentioned and available in law or equity.

Governing Law, Dispute Resolution and Jurisdiction

These Howzat.com Terms of Service shall in all respects be governed and interpreted and construed in accordance with the laws of India. All disputes, differences, complaints, etc. shall be subject to arbitration under the Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996.

Content

All content and materials on the Howzat Website and Mobile App, including, but not limited to, information, images, marks, logos, designs, pictures, graphics, text content, hyperlinks, multimedia clips, animation, games and software (collectively referred to as "Content" hereinafter), whether or not belonging to Howzat, are protected by applicable intellectual property laws. Additionally, all chat content, messages, images, recommendations, emails, images sent by any users can be logged/recorded by Howzat and shall form part of the Content, and Howzat is free to use this material in any manner whatsoever.

The Howzat Website and Mobile App may contain information about or hyperlinks to third parties. In such cases, Howzat is not in any way responsible for the content on such websites, and it does not provide any express or implied warranty of the accuracy, completeness, suitability or quality of the content belonging to such third-party websites. You may choose to rely on any third-party content (content that does not belong to Howzat) posted on the Howzat Website/Mobile App solely at your own risk and liability.

If you visit a third-party website through any third-party content posted on Howzat.com, you shall be subject to the terms and conditions applicable to that content and website. Howzat neither controls nor is it responsible for the content published on such third-party websites. The existence of a link to a third-party website on the Howzat Website/Mobile App is not in any way an endorsement of that website by Howzat.

Contest Formats

• Howzat provides Contests in two separate formats: (1) Public Contests, where users can participate in a Contest with other users without any restriction on participation, and (2) Private Contests, where users can invite specific users to a Contest and restrict participation to such invited users. All rules applicable to Contests as set out herein shall be applicable to both types of Contests.
  
  
• Public Contests
• In Public Contests, Howzat may offer Contests comprising 2 participants, 3 participants, 5 participants, 10 participants, 100 Participants, or any other pre-designated number of participants.
• Howzat may offer Public Contests in the real money gaming format and the winner will be determined at the end of the Contest.
• The number of participants required to make a Contest operational will be pre-specified and once the number of participants in such Contests equals the pre-specified number required for that Contest, the Contest will be operational. In case the number of participants is less than the pre-specified number at the pre-decided time of commencement of the Contest, such Contests shall not start and shall not be operational, and the participation fee paid by each participant will be credited back to the account of the respective user without any charge or deduction.
• Howzat Contests designated as "Guaranteed Contests" will become operational once the number of participants in such Contests equals the pre-specified number of winners to be declared in such Contests, even if all the available participant slots (as pre-specified in relation to the Contests) remain unfilled. It is clarified that notwithstanding the activation of such Contests, participants can continue to join such Contests until (i) all the available participant slots in such Contests are filled up, or (ii) the real-world game on which a Contest is based commences, whichever is earlier. In case such Contests are not operational by the specified time of the commencement of the Contest, the participation fee paid by each participant shall be credited back to the account of such user(s) without any charge or deduction.
• Private Contests
• In Private Contests, Howzat allows Users to create fantasy cricket Contests ("Private Contests") and invite other users, whether existing users or new users, to create fantasy teams and participate in the Contests. A user may create a Private Contest allowing the participation of a pre-specified number of participants, that is, 2 participants, 3 participants, 5 participants or 10 participants. The user creating a Private Contest shall pay a participation fee for the Private Contest, give a name to the Private Contest and join that Private Contest and be provided with a unique identification code (Fantasy League Code). The Fantasy League Code will be issued to the account of the user creating the Contest. The user agrees that once a Private Contest is created, no change to the terms or constitution of the Private Contest will be permitted, except a change in the name of the Contest. The user creating a Private Contest shall provide Howzat with the email addresses or Facebook usernames of all the invited users to enable Howzat to send a message or email inviting each invited users to register on Howzat.com (if necessary) and participate in the Private Contest to which they have been invited.
• To participate in a Private Contest, an invited user shall enter the Fantasy League Code of the Private Contest and pay the participation fee for the Private Contest. Once the number of participants in a Private Contest equals the number of pre-specified number of participants for that Private Contest, the Private contest shall be rendered operational and no other invited users or other users shall be permitted to participate in that Private Contest. In the event that a Private Contest does not get the pre-specified number of participants for that Private Contest until 1 hour prior to the commencement of the game/Contest, the participants of such Private Contest will be provided with the option to convert the Private Contest into a Public Contest, and permit the participation of users without the Fantasy League Code. It is clarified that Howzat undertakes such conversion in a serialized manner and cannot and does not warrant that any Private Contest will be converted into a Public Contest prior to the commencement of the game/Contest, or that any users will join such Contest to make it operational. In case the number of participants in any Private Contest (or converted Contest) is less than the pre-specified number at the time of commencement of the game/Contest, such Contest shall not start and the participation fee paid by each user will be credited back to his/her account without any deduction or charge.
• It is clarified that the participation of invited users in any Private Contest is subject to the pre-specified number of participants for that Private Contest, and Howzat shall not be liable to anyone for the inability of any invited user to participate in any Private Contest due to any reason whatsoever, including, without limitation, a hardware or technical malfunction or lack of eligibility of such invited user to participate in the Contest.

Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, and in consideration for being allowed to use our Services and participate in our Contests, you hereby agree to indemnify, save and hold harmless and defend Howzat.com (to the extent of all benefits and awards, cost of litigation, disbursements and reasonable attorney's fees that Howzat may incur in connection therewith including any direct, indirect or consequential losses, any loss of profit and loss of reputation) from any claims, actions, suits, taxes, damages, injuries, causes of action, penalties, interest, demands, expenses and/or awards asserted or brought against Howzat by any person in connection with:

• infringement of their intellectual property rights by your publication of any Content on the Howzat Website/mobile App;
• defamatory, offensive or illegal conduct of any other user or for anything that turns out to be misleading, inaccurate, defamatory, threatening, obscene or otherwise illegal whether originating from another user or otherwise;
• use, abuse or misuse of your Howzat user account in any manner whatsoever;
• any disconnections, technical failures, system breakdowns, defects, delays, interruptions, manipulated or improper data transmission, loss or corruption of data or communication lines failure, distributed denial of service attacks, viruses or any other adverse technological occurrences arising in connection with your access to or use of the Howzat Website/mobiler App and/or the Services; and
• access of your user account by any other person accessing the Services using your username or password, whether or not with your authorization.

Governing Law and Jurisdiction

Howzat Terms of Service and Privacy Policy shall be interpreted in accordance with the laws of India. Any dispute, controversy or claim arising from Howzat Terms of Service or Privacy Policy shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the civil courts at New Delhi.

Refund Policy

All deposits and purchases made and fees paid on Howzat.com to participate in or in connection with Contests are final. All transactions are final. Howzat gives utmost importance to customer satisfaction, so only erroneous transactions shall be reviewed.

If you are not fully satisfied with any deposit/purchase made or fee paid on Howzat and feel there is an error in the transaction, please reach out to Howzat within 3 days from the transaction date, and Howzat will review the transaction and determine the resolution at its own discretion.

Howzat reserves the right to cancel any matches for any reason, with or without disclosure of the reason, and refund all fees paid for such matches by any and all users.

Legality

Playing games of skill is legal as it is excluded from the ambit of Indian gambling legislations, including the Public Gambling Act of 1867. The Supreme Court of India, in the cases of State of Andhra Pradesh v. K Satyanarayana (AIR 1968 SC 825) and KR Lakshmanan v. State of Tamil Nadu (AIR 1996 SC 1153), has held that a game in which success depends predominantly upon the superior knowledge, training, attention, experience and adroitness of the player is a game of skill and playing a game of skill for real money is not gambling or betting but business activity.

The Contests provided by Howzat are games of skill as participants’ success in the Contests depends primarily on their superior knowledge of the games of cricket and/or football and/or kabaddi statistics, knowledge of players' relative form, players' performance in a particular territory, conditions and/or format (such as ODIs, Tests, T20, T10, etc.) and attention the Contests in which they are participating. The Contests require participants to field well-balanced sides with limited resources and make substitutions at appropriate times to score the most points.

By participating in Howzat Contests, each participant acknowledges and agrees that he/she is participating in a game of skill, not a game of chance or luck.

Fantasy Score and Feeds

Howzat may obtain the score feed and other information required for the computation, calculation and tabulation of scores from third party service providers. In the rare event that any error in the computation or tabulation of scores, selection of winners, etc. as a result of inaccuracy or incompleteness of the feed provided by the third-party service provider comes to its attention, Howzat.com will make the best efforts to rectify such error prior to the distribution of prizes. However, Howzat.com hereby clarifies that it relies on the accuracy and completeness of such third party score/statistic feeds and does not itself warrant or make any representations concerning the accuracy thereof and in any event shall not be responsible for inaccuracies in computation and tabulation of scores or the selection of winners as a result of any inaccurate or incomplete scores/statistics received from such third party service providers. Users and participants agree not to make any claim or raise any complaint against Howzat in this respect.

Starting Line-up: The purpose of indicating a player's inclusion in the final starting line-up is only to provide information and assist a user in selecting his/her team on Howzat. A player's inclusion in the starting line-up is indicated by Howzat on the basis of the information/data received from feed providers and publicly available information. Users are advised to do a thorough research of their own using official sources and/or other available sources of information to verify the information. Howzat shall not be liable or responsible in any way if a player indicated as 'playing' does not play or start the game for any reason whatsoever.

Bonuses and Benefits

Bonus: A bonus can be used only as a percentage/part of an entry fee. The permitted percentage usage is mentioned on the contest card. If a user does not have sufficient bonus balance to join a contest, the amount shall be deducted from his/her deposit balance. A user can get a bonus in 3 ways: by availing deposit offers, by referring friends to Howzat and in certain occasional promotions.

Instant Cash: Instant Cash is added to an eligible user’s Deposit wallet. The full Instant Cash amount can be used to join cash contests. Sometimes Instant Cash comes with a fixed-period validity. In such a case, the user is informed about the expiry of Instant Cash.

Referral Bonus: It is the total cash amount that a user is eligible for for referring his/her friend to Howzat. It is a sum of Instant Cash and Referral Bonus.

Free Entry Contests: You can join a Free Entry Contest without paying any entry fee whatsoever but you can win a cash prize by beating your opponents in that Contest.

Bonus and Instant Cash: Terms and Conditions

The following conditions apply to all the Howzat bonuses and promotions/offers (Instant Cash, Referral Bonus, etc.) on www.Howzat.com and all users who receive a Bonus or Promotion amount are bound by them:

• Deposit Bonuses are added to the Bonus account.
• Instant Cash given to the winners of Howzat promotions is added to their Bonus accounts.
• The Sign-up Bonus/Welcome Bonus and Referral Bonuses are added to the Bonus account once a user makes a minimum deposit of ₹100.
• A user cannot join Private Contests using a Referral Bonus or a part thereof.
• A user cannot withdraw cash from the Bonus account or Deposit account.
• The Bonus can only be used to join cash Contests. An amount won in cash Contests can be withdrawn as cash.
• The Playable Bonus and the Locked Bonus given to a user expires in 30 days from the day of disbursement if not utilized.

Prizes: Terms and Conditions

• A user can win multiple Contests and prizes in a day.
• A user can make a withdrawal only if he/she has made at least one successful cash deposit on Howzat.
• Every user is allowed only one entry in any Free Entry Contest. No user is allowed to join Howzat Contests using multiple accounts.
• Freight and shipping charges and customs duties, if any, on all prizes shall be borne by winners.
• As per government regulations, 30% income tax shall be deducted from the winnings of amount greater than ₹10,000 won in a single game/contest/tournament. The TDS (tax deducted at source) shall be deducted from the overall cash winnings in a game/contest/tournament.
• All prizes shall be subject to tax deduction (TDS) as per the Income Tax Act 1961. Winners will be provided with TDS certificates in respect of such tax deductions. Winners shall be responsible for the payment of any other applicable taxes, including, but not limited to, the income tax and gift tax in respect of the prize money.
• Howzat does not consider any changes made to the scorecard once the settlement is done.
• By downloading and/or using the licensed Howzat application, you acknowledge and agree to the following:
• Howzat, its subsidiaries and all group companies that collectively come under the name Howzat are in no way responsible for the application and the content within. Also, your use of this application and Website/Mobile App is limited to a non-transferable personal use.
• Howzat has no obligation of warranty with respect to the Website, Mobile App or Content on Howzat. All claims, liabilities, losses, damages, costs and/or expenses that occur because of using Howzat Website, Mobile App, Services, or the content on Howzat are the sole responsibility of the user. Howzat is not in any way responsible or liable for any liabilities, losses, damages, costs or expenses that occur because of your use of the Howzat Website, Mobile App, Services, or Howzat Content.
• Howzat is not responsible for any third-party infringement claims that your possession and/or use of any third-party's intellectual property may cause.
• Howzat allows people from all the states and union territories of India, except Assam, Odisha, Telangana, Nagaland, Sikkim and Andhra Pradesh, to participate in real money Contests on Howzat.
• All the standard terms and conditions of Howzat apply.
• The decision of Howzat management shall be final and binding in case of any disputes.
• Howzat representatives will approach players who win ₹10,000 or more in any contest for official text or video testimonials, which the players must provide.
• Every winner will have to share a video testimonial with the Howzat Team. Howzat will have the full right to use the video for all promotional purposes.
• Any cash amount won on the Howzat free app needs to be claimed within 30 days from the day of winning the amount. Users need to complete their KYC to claim the amount.