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Tag: Nazara Technologies

  • Nazara records Rs 4,466 million revenue for 9MFY22

    Nazara records Rs 4,466 million revenue for 9MFY22

    Mumbai: India-based diversified gaming and sports media platform Nazara Technologies has announced that its operating revenue grew by 35 per cent to Rs 4,466 million for the quarter and nine months ended 31 December 2021. In 9MFY21, it had reported Rs 3,308 million.

    According to the un-audited standalone and consolidated results shared by the company, it delivered a Profit After Tax (PAT) of Rs 428 million, recording a growth of 355 per cent y-o-y. The EBITDA stood at Rs 797 million, a growth of 141 per cent YoY, while the EBITDA margins were recorded at 17.8 per cent vs 10 per cent for 9MFY21. This value excludes other income, it said.

    The esports segment demonstrated 75 per cent growth in revenue as well as 71 per cent growth in EBITDA in the first 9MFY22. According to Nazara, the e-sports segment now contributes the highest revenue in Nazara portfolio with a 48 per cent contribution in 9MFY22 revenue vs 37 per cent in 9MFY21.

    Gamified Early Learning grew by 22 per cent in 9MFY22 over 9MFY21 and added a net positive paying subscriber base in Q3. While the skill-based real money gaming grew by 53 per cent in 9MFY22 over 9MFY21 and delivered break-even EBITDA in Q3 as against losses in previous quarters.

    “We have witnessed 75 per cent YoY growth in the esports segment for 9MFY22 led by strong growth in revenue across all sub-segments in Nodwin and SportsKeeda,” said Group CEO Manish Agarwal. “The addition of original IPs such as NH7 Weekender and expansion of our esports business into the Middle East via our acquisition of Publishme has further accelerated the growth momentum.”

    According to Agarwal, Nazara’s strategy of having a diversified portfolio across business segments in gaming continues to provide the company with a stable and strong platform on which we can continue to build future growth and success. “The company continues to remain committed to building multiple growth levers across gamified learning, freemium, esports, and skill-based real money gaming via growth in its current portfolio and the addition of more offerings in the ‘Friends of Nazara’ network through strategic M&A.”

  • Nazara acquires majority in ad tech company Datawrkz

    Nazara acquires majority in ad tech company Datawrkz

    Mumbai: Sports media company Nazara Technologies has entered an agreement to acquire 55 per cent stake in programmatic advertising and monetisation company Datawrkz valuing the company at Rs 255 crore (~$30 million) linked to CY 22 EBITDA performance.

    “Datawrkz tech offerings will enhance in-house capabilities of Nazara for optimising its customer acquisition spends as well as enhance yields on ad monetisation of its large consumer base,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday. “The ad revenue monetisation is expected to assist many of the companies in the ‘Friends of Nazara’ network.”

    Nazara will acquire 33 per cent stake (Rs 60 crore payable of which Rs 35 crore is partly payable in cash and the balance consideration of Rs 25 crore will be paid either in cash or swap of shares) in the first tranche by 22 April. Nazara has reserved an option to acquire an additional 22 per cent in the second tranche that is expected to close in Q4 FY23.

    “We, at Nazara, are looking to build strong gaming ad tech offerings globally with the partnership with Datawrkz,” said Nazara Technologies CEO Manish Agarwal. “We strongly believe that growth of gaming-focused ad tech will be exponential in the coming decade across geographies with the growth of gamers and game publishers across freemium, web 3.0 and skill-based real money gaming.”

    He further added, “Ad tech companies with deep data processing capabilities and first-party data ownership will emerge as winners in gaming-focused ad tech and will help Datawrkz to create value for itself as well as for Nazara shareholders.”

    Datawrkz was founded in 2013 by IIM Ahmedabad alumnus Senthil Govindan and is a global advertising technology firm focused on accelerating user and revenue growth for clients through highly optimised digital advertising. It has offices in the US, Singapore, and India and functions as an independent trading desk to power digital media strategy, planning and execution.

    Datawrkz’s self-service product suite for advertisers – Vizibl includes a demand-side platform as well as a customer data platform. On the supply side, Datawrkz generates revenue for publishers through AdPrimus, its supply-side product that drives user engagement, mediates between demand sources and enables audience segmentation.

    For the calendar year 2021, Datawrkz posted combined revenue of Rs 90.7 crore (~$12.1 million) and EBIDTA margin of 12 per cent with around 70 per cent of its revenue coming from the US as per CY 2021 unaudited financial statements.

    “We had started this company with a vision to disrupt the digital advertising space,” said Datawrkz founder Senthil Govindan. “Datawrkz was already on a fast track to achieve our objective with rapid growth and satisfied clients around the world. Through our partnership with Nazara, I see our pace accelerating further. While Datawrkz will be able to immediately bring our natural strengths to bear within the existing Nazara fold, this also gives both sides a tremendous opportunity to build global advertising and publisher monetization products with a sharp focus on the gaming vertical.”

    “As always, it’s a great moment for us to welcome a new friend to our ‘Friends of Nazara’ network and I believe Senthil and the entire Datawrkz team will add great value to what we are building at Nazara over the next few years,” added Nazara Technologies founder and joint MD Nitish Mittersain.

  • Nazara’s WCC brings aboard Abhinav Mukund as Tamil commentator

    KOLKATA: World Cricket Championship (WCC), from the house of Nazara Technologies, has touched the 155 million download mark, with addition of 15 million new downloads this year. The mobile gaming company is now looking to reach out to its fans in the vernacular markets, and has brought aboard former team India player Abhinav Mukund as Tamil commentator.

    Former Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden and Indian cricket commentator Aakash Chopra will manage the English and Hindi audience respectively, said the company.

    As the Covid crisis staggered the world with lockdowns, and live sports took a hit owing to lockdown restrictions, WCC served as an alternative to authentic cricket experience from the safety of homes. Given the growing user-base, the game aims to further penetrate the regional markets and cater to a larger share of the audience with better access to smartphones and data connectivity.

    Next Wave Multimedia CEO and co-founder P R Rajendran said, “With the introduction of professional commentators into the game, the aim is to bring users as close as possible to the actual game of cricket. With the recent suspension of live sports, we would be glad for WCC to bring respite to the cricket fans confined in their homes.”

    While Aakash Chopra and Matthew Hayden will add to the realism of the game, Abhinav Mukund will further accelerate the feeling and connect further with the vernacular audience, bridging cultural boundaries.  Players would be able to manually switch to the Tamil version of the commentary.

    “Cricket is the highest watched sport in the country and undoubtedly transcends language and boundaries with its popularity. Due to the pandemic-induced lockdown, live sport has been in the doldrums but with the realistic cricket experience that WCC provides, cricket entertainment is at the fingertips, albeit in a virtual form. I am excited to bring a Tamil twist for the players and hence expand the game’s periphery,” said cricket commentator Abhinav Mukund.

    WCC3 has featured in some prominent esports tournaments in the country including Redbull M.E.O., Skyesports, and LXG WCC tournaments. Being one of the only ‘Made in India’ games to feature in esports tournaments in the country, WCC is looking to make it easier for players and tournament organisers to conduct tournaments on the game with its recently launched esports mode.

    The World Cricket Championship series was created by Chennai-based Next Wave Multimedia Pvt. Ltd., which is a subsidiary of Nazara Technologies Ltd., a leading India-based diversified gaming and sports media platform. Launched in November 2020, the third installment is the latest in the series. The game has won the Indian Game Developers Conference’s “Studio Game of the Year” award and Google Play Store’s “Users Choice” Award 2020.

  • Nazara Technologies notches up good financial scores in Q4

    Nazara Technologies notches up good financial scores in Q4

    Mumbai: If you are a gamer, you will know that at times, it looks like you are lagging far behind, with most of your shooters gone. But things turn around and you start scoring, knocking out the rival’s gunmen, and you come out on top. Just like recently, the publicly listed Nazara Technologies has done. The Indian gaming and esports major has reported operating revenue of Rs 123.38 crore in q4, 41.7 per cent higher than the previous year’s corresponding quarter.

    The company has erased all the red ink on its earnings report by notching up growth of 84 per cent year-on-year in profit to reach Rs 4.2 crore, as against a loss of Rs 7 crore (q4 last year).

    “As we operate in the high growth business segments of gamified early learning, esports, and freemium, we continue to prioritise growth over profit maximisation, to achieve and maintain market leadership in the segments we operate in,” said an excited Nazara Technologies group chief executive officer Manish Agarwal.

    The esports segment revenue ballooned to Rs 48.57 crore from Rs 39.77 crore in the same quarter last year. Gamified early learning nearly trebled to reach Rs 50.61 crore, compared to Rs 19.52 crore. However, revenue for the freemium segment declined to Rs 4.32 crore from Rs 4.03 crore. Telco subscription also marginally declined to Rs 17.83 crore from Rs 18.08 crore for the corresponding period in the last fiscal.

    “Prudent financial management is in our DNA. This is clearly visible from the Rs 4,784 million (Rs 478.4 crore) in cash reserves, including liquid investments, as well as the zero debt on our balance sheet. We will efficiently utilise our cash balance to fund any inorganic growth opportunities- ranging from building capabilities to geographic and demographic expansions in our operational domain. To conclude, we are in a good position to continue executing our strategy and maintain our market leadership position in the years to come,” Agarwal added.

    For the financial year 2020-2021, operating revenue grew 84 per cent year-on-year to Rs 454.2 crore. While EBITDA has gone up by 508 per cent year-on-year to Rs 59.6 crore, EBITDA margins have also improved from 3.7 per cent in FY2019-2020 to 12.7 per cent. It has delivered profits of Rs 13.6 crore in the just-ended fiscal year.

  • Nodwin Gaming gets Rs 164 crore backing from PUBG creator Krafton

    Nodwin Gaming gets Rs 164 crore backing from PUBG creator Krafton

    KOLKATA: Built on the world's largest youth demographic and fuelled by affordable smartphone and data prices, e-sports has seen a surging demand which has led to Nodwin Gaming receiving a minority investment of Rs 164 crore from South Korean gaming firm Krafton. 

    Nodwin Gaming will channelise these funds to accelerate the development of e-sports in South Asia, Middle East and Africa, support talent, provide better gaming infrastructure and technology and conceptualise, organise and execute a multitude of tournament IPs at the national and international level.

    This round of funding follows previous investments from Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Nazara Technologies and from JetSynthesys backed by Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan. 

    “Esports will be a key pillar to the growth of sports entertainment in the future. It sits at a wonderful intersection of sports, entertainment and technology where nations such as India can pave the path. With Krafton coming on board, we have an endorsement from the mecca of gaming and e-sports – South Korea, on what we are building from India for the world based on our competence in mobile first markets,” said Nodwin Gaming co-founder and managing director Akshat Rathee. 

    Krafton is one of the top gaming companies in South Korea and is the creator of intellectual properties and games such as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), TERA, Golf King, Castle Burn among others.

    India banned PUBG and hundreds of other apps with affiliation to China last year citing cybersecurity concerns. Krafton has been attempting to bring PUBG Mobile back in India, with no luck yet. To assuage the Indian government’s concerns about users’ security, the South Korean firm said it had cut ties with Chinese publisher Tencent.

    Krafton CEO Changhan Kim said, “Krafton is excited to partner with Nodwin Gaming to help foster the promising esports ecosystem and engage with our fans and players in India. Taking the momentum from this partnership, we will explore additional investment opportunities in the region to uphold our commitment and dedication in cultivating the local video game, esports, entertainment, and tech industries.”

    Post the transaction, Nazara will continue to own a stake in excess of 50 per cent in Nodwin Gaming. Nazara invested the e-sports firm in 2018 and this investment has created a value in excess of 6.44X in three years.

    Nazara technologies CEO Manish Agarwal said, “Nazara has been an early and strong believer in the potential of esports to disrupt the sports entertainment market and we believe this partnership between Krafton and the Nazara group will accelerate the growth of esports and open doors for collaboration between Indian and Korean gaming companies in future.” 

    JetSynthesys VC and MD Rajan Navani, the founder investor who helped envision Nodwin Gaming at the conception stage itself, added, “We identified the early opportunity in esports as a key pillar to build the gaming ecosystem in India and this investment is an endorsement of the tremendous potential of esports in the journey of a new Atmanirbhar Bharat. Akshat, Gautam and other members of the founding team are true gems of a youthful India that is raring to conquer the world and we at JetSynthesys are excited about what the future holds for us.”

  • Nazara Technologies, Delta Corp to invest Rs 40 cr in HalaPlay

    Nazara Technologies, Delta Corp to invest Rs 40 cr in HalaPlay

    MUMBAI: Nazara Technologies Ltd and Delta Corp Ltd, which is India based casino gaming company, together will invest Rs 40 crore as part of Series-A funding round in an online daily fantasy sports platform, HalaPlay.

    HalaPlay, launched in 2017, has seen an explosive growth in the user base and total transactions since then. It has in the past received investment from Nazara Technologies, Kae Capital, Angel List and other angel investors. The company has seen 10x user growth in the last 12 months and will exponentially grow with over 1 crore active players to play in upcoming cricket season.

    Halaplay CEO Swapnil Saurav said, “Getting funding support from two of India’s largest gaming companies instills faith in us as a team taking us a notch higher in the Indian fantasy sports arena. Fantasy sports has been on the rise with the market being estimated to be $1 billion currently and is expected to go up to $5 billion in the next two years and hence this boost could not have come at a better time ensuring and enabling our growth along with.”

    Nazara Technologies Ltd CEO Manish Agarwal said, “Nazara invested in HalaPlay in 2017 and we continue to be excited about the growth story of HalaPlay. We are confident that Halaplay with this fresh round of funds will ride the explosive growth of fantasy sports in India.”

    Nazara has been actively pursuing opportunities in the interactive sports vertical categories and has invested in mobile gaming companies like Mastermind Sports Limited and Moonglabs Technologies Pvt Ltd apart from HalaPlay Technologies Pvt Ltd. Nazara has also taken a majority stake in Next Wave Multimedia Private Limited and Nodwin Gaming Pvt Ltd in the e sports arena in addition to recent investments in CrimzonCode and NZWorld (NZWorld Kenya Limited) to set up operations of real money gaming in Kenya.

    Delta Corp MD Ashish Kapadia said, “Delta believes in the HalaPlay team and their ability to innovate in the daily fantasy sports industry. Their viral growth is proof that they have been able to build a differentiated product that users love. We are excited by their potential, and are confident that this round of funding will help propel them to even greater heights.”

  • Nazara Technologies launches ‘Bang Bang’ mobile game

    Nazara Technologies launches ‘Bang Bang’ mobile game

    MUMBAI: Nazara Technologies, one of the leading mobile game developer and publisher, has launched a game based on the much anticipated action romance of the year ‘Bang Bang’ releasing on 2 October. The game was officially launched by actor Hrithik Roshan in the presence of Nazara Technologies CEO Nitish Mittersain.

     

    The third-person action adventure game features both the lead actors and follows the storyline of the film, where the protagonists Rajveer (Hrithik Roshan) and Harleen (Katrina Kaif) fight the enemy to retain the Kohinoor, the world’s most expensive diamond, stolen by Rajveer. The game is available to download for free on the Google Play store and soon it will be available on all other major stores too.

     

    Mittersain said, “India has witnessed an unprecedented surge in subscribers using internet on mobiles with the number crossing 100 million last year. This clearly makes it one of the largest and most effective medium for brands to reach out to consumers, or fans in the case of movies.” He further added, “Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif are undoubtedly among the top actors in the country today, in fact they have gone beyond being just actors and are brands in themselves. This initiative will allow fans to step into Hrithik and Katrina’s shoes, giving them an opportunity to get closer to their favourite stars.”

     

    Fox Star Studios chief marketing officer Shikha Kapur added, “Bang Bang is an action entertainer like no other. It’s replete with thrilling chases and audacious stunts that will be a first for Indian audiences. It gives us great pleasure to translate some of this action of the film to the mobile screen in the form of the Bang Bang mobile game. This is our endeavour to give users a taste of the thrill and adventure of the film through engaging gameplay and vibrant graphics. As a studio, we have always believed in the expansion of platforms so that our content reaches out to maximum users in varied ways, and bringing the Bang Bang game to the mobile screen, fits right into our strategy.”

     

    The mobile gaming industry is at an inflection point and according to a report by KPMG and FICCI, it is expected to touch Rs 19.6 billion by 2018 largely due to the growing smartphone market in India and the improved connectivity offered by telecom operators. The Indian film industry too has been growing at a phenomenal pace with multiple films breaking the Rs 100 crore barrier over the last couple of years. Given these two factors, movie-based mobile gaming should be an exciting space to watch out for.

     

  • Nazara Technologies launches Dhoni cricket games for Qualcomm’s Brew solution

    Nazara Technologies launches Dhoni cricket games for Qualcomm’s Brew solution

    MUMBAI: Mobile content developer Nazara Technologies has launched two games based on cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

    They have been developed for Qualcomm’s Brew solution. Dhoni Tappebaaz and Dhoni Dhamaka, are designed to bring the excitement of cricket to mobile phones. Nazara Technologies will also launch Mahendra Singh Dhoni wallpapers and screensavers.

    In Dhoni Tappebaaz, the user will have to skillfully keep the ball off the ground by striking it with his bat. Users will have the option of downloading different levels of the game and adding unique features. Dhoni Tappebaaz also will have a community-based feature that will enable users to compete with each other and participate in contests.

    Dhoni Dhamaka has been designed with Dhoni’s hard-hitting batting style in mind. In this game, players will have to score the maximum number of runs, hitting as many sixes and fours as possible.

    Nazara Technologies CEO Nitish Mittersain says, “The Brew solution has given us immense flexibility and empowered us with superior technology to develop multiple-feature games with rich graphics.

    “Dhoni Tappebaaz and Dhoni Dhamaka have been developed keeping in mind Dhoni’s mass appeal in India. We are certain that users will find the content compelling and the game play addictive.”

    Qualcomm India director of product technologies Vishal Gupta says, “Qualcomm is committed to creating a healthy wireless ecosystem with the Brew solution by offering all members of the mobile marketplace opportunities for growth, while helping them address market-specific needs and allowing them to create targeted solutions and services.

    “With Dhoni Tappebaaz and Dhoni Dhamaka, Nazara Technologies has created two BREW games perfectly suited for cricket enthusiasts in India.”

    The Brew solution drives the discovery and delivery of data services. Brew subscribers benefit from several offerings, which include: uiOne™ for rich, integrated and dynamic user experiences with fast access to high revenue services on wireless devices; deliveryOne for differentiated and tightly integrated, operator-managed support and delivery of advanced wireless data content and services; and marketOne™ for a quick-to-market, hosted, scalable content delivery service that includes media titles, flexible management and monetization, content provider settlement and business intelligence services. Qualcomm says that it offers this set of Brew offerings to meet the needs of companies delivering mobile products and services around the world.

    Nazara Technologies is a mobile content developer targetting global mobile consumer markets. The company works with leading brands such as Archie Comics, Miramax Studios and Sachin Tendulkar among many others and develops rich mobile media content based on these properties. Nazara has also set up India’s largest dedicated 3D mobile game studio that is releasing three new 3D games using the Brew solution every month.