Gaming
Penta Esports partners with Loco to announce pan-India esports league for colleges and universities
Mumbai: A gaming and esports company Penta Esports has announced the launch of its latest IP, the ‘Penta Collegiate League’ presented by Loco, for colleges and universities throughout India. This league’s tournaments will stream exclusively on Loco’s app and website. This league’s other partners include ‘Leverage Edu’ as a study abroad partner and ‘GOQii’ as a healthcare partner.
With Rs 30,00,000 as an annual scholarship award, the first year of the ‘Penta Collegiate League’ will feature two esports titles — Valorant on PC and Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) on mobile — and will have two qualifiers each for both games. The registration for the first qualifiers has already begun and will continue until 19 June 2022. The matches of the first qualifiers will start on 21 June 2022. The dates for the second qualifier will be announced soon.
Both the playoff matches of the qualifiers and the final match of the first season will be broadcast live exclusively on Penta Esports. Students can complete the registration process for the tournament by visiting ‘www.pentaesports.com’. The league’s complete information, including match schedules, match results, VODs of tournaments and leagues, content, news, announcements, and much more, can be found at the company’s official website.
Speaking about the idea behind this new esports league, Penta Esports founder and CEO Anurag Khurana said, “Our major focus is to provide opportunities to the budding esports athletes at the grass-root level. Esports is rapidly gaining popularity as a viable path for many and we want to provide a platform similar to conventional sports to aspiring esports athletes. The scholarship aims to help esports athletes in their endeavours.”
Commenting on the partnership, Loco founder Ashwin Suresh, said, “Game streaming is no longer looked upon as just a casual hobby. As more gamers become creators and start streaming, and new tournament organisers create more events, newer audiences are drawn to watch this content. The increased viewership will eventually lead to an increase in revenue for the overall ecosystem. As a pioneer of this industry, we’re excited to see it expand and we’re playing an active role in helping it grow. With our association with the ‘Penta Collegiate League’, we aim to support budding streamers and kickstart their esports careers.”
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.
