Gaming
ESFI opens registrations for National Esports Championships 2024
Mumbai: Esports Federation of India (ESFI) has opened the registrations for the highly anticipated National Esports Championships (NESC) 2024, marking the start of the journey towards the 16th World Esports Championships (WEC) which will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Organized by the International Esports Federation (IESF), the WEC 2024 will witness a total of 609 teams representing their countries across five game titles – Counter Strike 2 (Open and Female), Dota2, eFootball™ series, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (Open and Female), and PUBG MOBILE. The prestigious tournament will kick off on November 11 and feature a whopping prize pool of $1 million prize pool being distributed among the top eight teams in each game title and category for the first time.
The NESC 2024 will provide a platform for players across India to demonstrate their prowess in DOTA 2 (Open), eFootball (Open), and Counter-Strike 2 in the open and female categories. The winners will advance to the regional qualifiers where they will compete against other Asian countries to secure their berth for the global finals of the WEC 2024.
Commenting on the commencement of the NESC 2024, Esports Federation of India president Vinod Tiwari stated, “After a historic 2023, where India made its debut at the Asian Games 2022, we are excited to embark on a new year of opportunities with the NESC 2024. Last year, we hosted the country’s inaugural female CS:GO qualifiers, where the winning team made it all the way to the Asian qualifiers. This time, we anticipate even greater achievements from our country’s talented female athletes. Overall, we are looking forward to witnessing the talent and passion of all Esports players throughout the qualifiers.”
One of the country’s top sports & Esports communication agencies, Artsmith-Concepts & Visions, will continue its support to the Esports Federation of India as its official communication partner.
The registrations for NESC 2023 are now open and will continue until 15 April. All details about the registrations will be available on ESFI’s discord server – https://discord.gg/esfi
The online qualifiers will kick off from 18 April and will be played in a double-elimination format. The exciting action from the Championships will be streamed live on ESFI’s official YouTube and Facebook pages.
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Gaming
MTG gaming chief Benninghoff joins NODWIN board as esports firm primes for IPO
The Gurugram-based esports firm is pursuing a public listing, has returned to profitability and is growing revenues by 42 per cent
GURUGRAM: NODWIN Gaming is moving fast. The Gurugram-based gaming and esports company has launched a pre-IPO fundraising round, appointed UBS as lead adviser for both the round and a subsequent public listing, and landed a heavyweight board director, all in one go.
The new board member is Arnd Benninghoff, executive vice president of gaming at Stockholm-listed Modern Times Group (MTG), who has overseen the group’s strategic investments and portfolio growth since 2014. He is no stranger to building things: Benninghoff has founded and built fifteen companies, served as chief digital officer at ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, managing director of SevenVentures, and chief executive of Holtzbrinck eLAB. He began his career as a journalist at Deutsche Presse Agentur and various TV networks, holds a Diplom-Kaufmann in business and administration from the University of Münster, and previously sat on the board of Edgeware AB.
The numbers back the ambition
NODWIN is not pitching a story without substance. The company has returned to EBITDA profitability and posted a 42 per cent year-on-year revenue surge, reaching $58.5m in the first nine months of FY2026. The pre-IPO round will combine a primary issuance to fund global expansion through organic growth and acquisitions, alongside a secondary sale to give existing shareholders some liquidity.
Akshat Rathee, co-founder and managing director of NODWIN Gaming, said Benninghoff understands “the entire lifecycle of the gaming and media ecosystem, from the boots-on-the-ground reality of building startups to the strategic complexity of managing multi-billion dollar global portfolios.”
Benninghoff, for his part, said the company “sits at the intersection of sports, entertainment, and technology, making it one of the most exciting players in the global gaming landscape today.”
A portfolio built for the global south
Founded in 2014 by Rathee and Gautam Virk, NODWIN has quietly assembled one of the more compelling esports portfolios outside the Western hemisphere. Its properties include DreamHack India and Comic Con India, and it recently acquired StarLadder, the Ukraine-based tournament organiser behind premier events in CS:GO and Dota 2. The company also serves as a long-term strategic marketing partner for the Evolution Championship Series (EVO), the world’s most prominent fighting game tournament, helping push it into new geographies.
Its geographic focus spans South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Backers include Nazara Technologies, KRAFTON, Sony Group Corporation, JetSynthesys, and the founders’ investment vehicle Good Game Investments.
What comes next
With UBS running the books, a board freshly reinforced with European media and gaming expertise, and revenue heading in the right direction, NODWIN is laying the groundwork deliberately. The esports industry has burned investors before with big promises and thin margins. NODWIN’s return to profitability, combined with a real portfolio of owned intellectual properties across gaming, music and youth culture, gives it a more credible runway than most. The IPO clock is now ticking.
