Hariharan’s story

Scaling MPL Call Break Through Retention and Trust

Scaled Call Break into a top-three MPL revenue product through retention and fraud work.

Hariharan V

Senior Product Manager, Nagent

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KKratos Gaming Network
111Wizards
MMobile Premier League (MPL)
16+ years of experience

From their time as

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Product Manager

Mobile Premier League (MPL) • Jun 2021 – Sep 2023

Overview

At MPL, I led Call Break as it grew into a top-three revenue product with more than 100,000 daily active users. I used player research and granular event data to improve retention, expand engagement formats, and strengthen fraud controls. The game contributed 25% of MPL revenue.

The Story

Call Break had meaningful scale, which made small weaknesses in onboarding, retention, or fair play commercially important. I owned the product from early in its growth and worked with a 15-person cross-functional team across engineering, design, business, data, marketing, and revenue.

I spent two years building a clearer picture of why players left or returned. That included more than 3,000 customer calls, support feedback, competitor analysis, and funnel data across D1, D3, D7, and longer-term retention. I broke important journeys into client-side and server-side events so we could distinguish product failures, connectivity issues, and player behavior instead of relying on assumptions.

Those findings shaped onboarding help, leaderboards, tournaments, fantasy and trump formats, matchmaking improvements, and other product changes. For new players, we focused on teaching the game and reducing early confusion. For established players, we created repeat reasons to return and compete.

Fraud was another core part of the work. I examined edge cases and recurring behavior, then worked with data, AI and ML, and engineering colleagues on indicators for multi-account use, player collusion, and suspicious hands. The objective was to protect legitimate players while limiting attempts to game the system.

The product became one of MPL's top-three revenue-generating games within 24 months. It served more than 100,000 daily active users and contributed 25% of company revenue. The team received MPL's Best Team Award for its growth, and I shared the monetary award with the engineers, designers, marketers, and revenue colleagues who built the outcome with me.

Ownership Snapshot

Broad role

Led product growth for Call Break with a cross-functional team.

Goal

Grow engagement, retention, and revenue while protecting fair play.

Direct ownership

Owned user research, product priorities, event design, and fraud requirements.

Team execution

Worked with engineering, design, data, AI and ML, marketing, and revenue colleagues.

Topics

  • Consumer Gaming
  • Retention
  • Fraud Prevention
  • Product-Led Growth
  • User Research

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