Gaming
Adda52 unveils its poker series – Adda52 online Poker series (AOPS)
Mumbai: Adda52, India’s leading online poker destination, announced one of its mostanticipated poker series – Adda52 Online Poker Series (AOPS). AOPS has been instrumental in growing the poker community witnessing participation from all over India in its previous editions. The series is scheduled to take place from 27th January to 18th February 2024. The current edition of the Adda52 Online Poker Series will give the players an opportunity to showcase their talent to win from a prize pool of ₹15 Cr across diverse formats. The series will also have 23 trophy events which will ensure a thrilling experience for poker enthusiasts and professionals alike. The final tables for 4 premier events will be played live in Goa, aboard the luxurious Deltin Royale!
The series’ main attraction is the Main Event which features an astounding prize pool of Rs 3 Cr. To makeit more interesting, the buy-ins for tournaments would start from as low as Rs 550, with daily satellite tournaments running for just Rs 110 for the Rs 3 Cr GTD Main Event. The players will also have the opportunity to unlock winnings of Rs 35 Lakh through the AOPS Leaderboard. The players can enter daily freeroll tournaments and unlock attractive deposit offers to win free tickets for satellites and main events.
Commenting on the occasion, Deltatech Gaming CMO Joydeep Mukherjee said, “AOPS, our flagship poker series is not just another poker series, but a celebration of our love for the game. It’s a commitment to our passion for building a vibrant poker community in India, where anybody can exercise their poker skills to compete with the best in the country; where the online and offline world converges, bringing together champions from all over the country to the iconic Deltin Royale in Goa to play the final table. We are confident that this edition of AOPS will be an amazing experience for all our players.”
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.
