Mumbai, August 21, 2019: Nazara Technologies Ltd. a leading global interactive gaming and sports media company has invested an approx. 44 crores and acquired a 67% stake in Sportskeeda, a sports media platform. With this investment, Nazara adds 25 million monthly active users and closes in on 100 million monthly active users on its network.
Nazara has built a strong network of companies in the interactive gaming and sports space through its investments and acquisitions in various gaming categories including e-sports, fantasy sports, mobile cricket games and real money gaming among others. Nazara has been the most aggressive investor in the Indian gaming and sports media space in the last 18 months. This investment will also stand to benefit Nazara’s portfolio enabling cross networking opportunities while lending symbiotic synergy between the investee companies.
Sportskeeda was formerly backed by Seedfund, an early stage venture capital company with an investment amount of approximately 6 crores in 2012. Today, Sportskeeda curates over 10,000 articles per month, crowd sourced from a network of top journalists and serves personalized content to over 25 million+ monthly active users globally. Sportskeeda covers mainstream sports like football, cricket, esports, basketball, kabaddi, WWE, MMA and more.
Sportskeeda CEO, Porush Jain, says, “Nazara’s acquisition and investment into Sportskeeda is an important milestone in our journey. From our modest beginning as a multi-sport blog in 2009, we have become a one of a kind sports content platform. We have our eyes set on becoming the world’s largest multi-sport platform by leveraging Nazara’s geographical reach in the sports-crazy Middle East & Africa markets.”
According to Bharati Jacob, Co-founder, SeedFund “We, at SeedFund, have enjoyed a decade long partnership with Sportskeeda. We are pleased to see Porush and his team realize their vision in making Sportskeeda one of the major sports media destinations in India and internationally.
Nitish Mittersain, Founder and Managing Director of Nazara Technologies Ltd. says “We at Nazara are building platforms for fan engagement across all aspects of sports entertainment and we believe that this move will serve a triple play offering to the 100 million strong network through content, competition and community across all emerging markets”.
About Sportskeeda
Sportskeeda is a global multi-sport platform which connects fans, experts, and sportspersons across the world to provide high-quality sports infotainment. Currently serving content in English, Hindi, and Tamil, SK will soon be launched in 5 more languages. Sportskeeda has a fast-growing monthly user base of 25 million + making it the largest sports media platform in its category.
Sportskeeda’s content is contributed by its community of journalists across the world. The site currently publishes 300 articles and 40 short videos every day. Sportskeeda Quizzes will be launched soon in a big way, keep an eye out for the amazing SK mobile app that will be launched soon.
About Nazara Technologies Limited
Nazara Technologies Limited (“Nazara”) is a leading global interactive gaming and sports media company headquartered in Mumbai, India. Nazara has business operations in 61 countries across emerging markets. The company has a diversified portfolio of gaming businesses across free to play mobile games, real money skill gaming, esports and gaming subscription services.
Nazara has a network of over 100 Million players in India. The company has taken licensed mobile gaming rights to popular Indian IP characters like Chhota Bheem, Motu Patlu, Mighty Raju, Shikari Shambhu, Roll #21, Eena Meena Deeka, Oggy and the Cockroaches and Shin Chan. Nazara also owns IP’s like World Cricket Championship (WCC), EPIC Cricket, India Premiership and IPG.TV.
Nazara is also an investor in the gaming and sports ecosystem in India and has consummated transactions worth 30 Million USD in the last 2 years. The company has acquired a majority stake in Next Wave Multimedia Pvt. Ltd., Nodwin Gaming Pvt. Ltd and HalaPlay Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Nazara’s other investee companies include, Mastermind Sports Ltd., Moonglabs Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Bakbuck, CrimzonCode, InstaSportz and NZWorld (NZWorld Kenya Ltd.) to set up operations for real money gaming in Kenya.
Founded and Promoted by Nitish Mittersain, Nazara received its initial investment from West Bridge Capital. The company recently raised 80 Million USD from IIFL Special Opportunities Fund; Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and Turtle Entertainment GmbH, the IP owner of the world’s largest esports franchise (ESL).