Gaming
Mobile games are the next big advertising frontier: GreedyGame’s Arpit Jain
NEW DELHI: Digital entertainment formats have become hugely popular across India, with the Covid2019 pandemic further accelerating the shift to online modes of pleasurable pastime. One of the prime beneficiaries has been the mobile gaming ecosystem. It is already amongst the top five globally and as per Statista, will be worth about $2.4 billion in 2020, up from $600 million in 2017. However, despite the marvellous growth it has been witnessing, there is still a lot of grey-space to be filled when it comes to advertising revenues. That’s where GreedyGame comes into the picture. Headquartered in Bengaluru, GreedyGame is a mobile-first native ads platform that helps app and game publishers monetise better and help acquire genuine users globally.
Founded by IIT Ropar alumnus Arpit Jain in October 2013, GreedyGame is solving the fundamental problem for mobile publishers and advertisers – how to run ads without disrupting the user experience.
With the backing of renowned investor institutions such as Times Internet and angel investors including Ankit Nagori from Curefit, Sujeet Kumar from Udaan, Ravi Garikipati from Davinta, Anuj Choudhary from Aalgro, etc, GreedyGame has been growing 100 per cent YoY since its inception in 2013, and has reportedly clocked more than 4X in this FY. It is currently helping more than 200 app/game publishers to monetise higher and acquire quality users across the globe, including Dream11.
Jain tells Indiantelevision.com, “We started GreedyGame with a mission to empower mobile developers to develop world-changing apps and build the most engaging games without constantly worrying about revenue. Hence, we created an end-to-end implementation, mediation and optimisation platform for ads.”
With its unique software development kit (SDK), GreedyGame enables app developers to run native ad units customised for their app experiences. It also helps app and game publishers increase their users globally by helping them with the right user acquisition strategies and optimising their campaigns on multiple mediums including Google and Facebook ads.
“Our strategy is simple, to first study the app in order to understand better and come up with an app-specific monetisation strategy. GreedyGame SDK, which is enabled with the ‘smart refresh’ feature, picks the best model for app monetisation customising to the developer’s needs. Our AI-enabled recommendation of dynamic ad unit templates also helps publishers of all sizes to implement native ads effortlessly. The cross-format support enables developers to try a variety of ad formats like banner, interstitial and native in single ad space and modify the ad format as they like. We help publishers implement native ads in their apps in a hassle-free manner, making sure that their revenues are optimised, without any policy violations, and also keeping the users happy,” he elaborates.
GreedyGame also has a dedicated team of marketers who run Google, Facebook, and other media campaigns for app publishers. “Currently, we are managing 50+ publishers Google Ad accounts. We are able to generate approximately three million+ installs at an optimum CPI,” he adds.
Jain notes that the Covid2019 pandemic has further created a flourishing environment for online and mobile gaming ecosystem and that has pushed more and more brands to utilise the space for advertising.
“Online gaming, primarily on mobile devices, has become massively popular in India. 50 per cent of mobile app users play games, second only to social media and communications apps in terms of time spent. During the months of lockdown, people spent significantly more time on their phones and there was a surge in the downloads of popular games such as Ludo King, PUBG, etc. If we look at the data, taking an example of IPL-related gaming apps, 88 per cent of audience profiles were playing on these apps during the recent IPL season. So, when the user base is that huge it definitely is something that lures the advertisers. Brands have started working on independent budgets for capturing gaming users and big brands like Oppo, Flipkart, Amazon are increasingly opting for mobile advertising considering the reach,” he shares.
Jain illustrates this with an example: streaming giant Netflix recently claimed that Fortnite, a popular multiplayer shooter game, is a bigger competitor than rival streaming platforms like HBO in the US. “Big brands like Cadbury, Tesco, Heineken, Flipkart, Amazon etc believe that it is easy and the ROI in gaming ads is higher. Brands like Unilever, Coca-Cola, and Ford invest heavily in mobile gaming, and many of the early-adopting brands look at mobile gaming as the new social media in terms of the opportunity to engage with consumers at scale. Molson Coors is another example of a brand advertiser that has been ramping its media investment in gaming and e-sports for many of its most popular brands like Miller Lite and Coors Lite.”
Today, ads are a major source of revenue for game publishers as only 0.25 per cent of total users pay for IAPs (In-App Purchases) in India, remarks Jain. “Rewarded ads are the biggest ad revenue-generating format in games. India is among the lowest eCPM (effective cost per thousand impressions) countries in the world, so LTVs are very low. Hence, the user base needs to be high to make sustainable revenues from ads and games need to generate organic traffic. Most successful games are localised – for example Ludo, cricket, card games etc – which is why they get organic traffic and are able to generate sustainable revenues.”
He believes that there await a plethora of opportunities in the in-game advertising industry and he is willing to capitalise on that, helping the publishers and advertisers alike to generate maximum ROI.
“GreedyGame intends to work with app/game publishers who are making money via ads and maximise their revenue through our SDK. Our plan is to become the market leader in the genre of mobile-first advertising through native ad formats. We aim to work with 1000+ publishers by the end of next year,” he signs off.
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.
