Nazara Technologies which announced its foray into esports last year, has acquired a majority stake of 55 per cent in NODWIN Gaming, one of the premier esports companies in India. NODWIN, which is a 50:50 venture between Akshat Rathee, Gautam Virk and Jetsynthesys, will become an independent subsidiary of Nazara.
EY acted as the exclusive financial advisor to the transaction.
The approach by Nazara includes localised content creation around global events (ESL One, ESL Pro League, Intel Extreme Masters, The International by Valve, etc) and creating local events by bringing in sponsors.
Westbridge Capital MD Sandeep Singhal quoted, “Nazara and Nodwin coming together is a great win-win for the shareholders of both the companies. We are delighted at the possibility of this alliance.”
According to Nazara Technologies CEO Manish Agarwal, “Through this acquisition we aim to provide Indian esports enthusiasts a robust player and community orientated esports ecosystem, in which players can thrive, improve their skills and become top competitors at an international level.
Nazara with its acquisition of NODWIN intends to leverage its investments in mobile and digital sports category to build IPs in the esports space along with NODWIN in emerging markets across disciplines such as soccer, cricket and other traditional sports.
NODWIN Gaming CEO and director Akshat Rathee
According to, NODWIN Gaming CEO and MD Akshat Rathee, “esports is one of the fastest growing sports worldwide. This acquisition by Nazara Games adds to the credibility of NODWIN and opens up a wide vista of opportunities for Indian esports players to build careers domestically and internationally. It strengthens our ability to provide our key stakeholders better experiences and bigger opportunities to engage with our community”
Nazara’s exisiting investments in mobile gaming companies like Next Wave Multi Media, Mastermind Sports, Moong Labs and Hala play are in line with building a network of synergistic companies for operations in India and other emerging markets across Middle East, Africa and South East Asia.
Jetsynthesys vice chairman and MD Rajan Navani added “Having worked closely with Akshat Rathee and Gautam Virk to build Nodwin Gaming to this level, we are pleased and excited about the future opportunity for all of us, that opens up with Nazara’s participation to help establish Nodwin as the clear leader in esports over the longer term.”
The esports market is growing at a fast pace as it becomes more and more popular around the world. The global esports audience totalled 322 million in 2016, up by 86 million since 2015. This number is likely have grown to almost 386 million in 2017 and will continue to increase rapidly, at a CAGR of 14 per cent, reaching 665 million in 2021. The Indian esports audience is still very small, with an estimated two million enthusiasts and two million occasional viewers, but is expected to grow more than fivefold by 2021(Source: Industry Insights for Online and Mobile Gaming in India, Frost and Sullivan, January 2018]; (Source: Newzoo).
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