Gaming
FanCode acquires exclusive streaming rights for the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2023
Mumbai: Digital sports fan destination FanCode announced that it has acquired the exclusive rights to live-stream the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2023 (men’s & women’s) in India.
The will be played across Asia, Africa, North America, Australia, and Europe until May 2023, and will witness over 400 action-packed matches across 11 tournaments hosted live and exclusively on the FanCode mobile app, the FanCode TV app available on Android TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Jio STB, Samsung TV, and through the web at www.fancode.com.
FanCode is curating a comprehensive and immersive digital experience aimed at revolutionising how fans consume sports, beginning with the ability to select data and analysis of choice via interactive overlays while viewing the live stream. Fans will also be able to rewatch and relive any moment from the game almost in real-time.
The 2023 edition will tour Hong Kong, Dubai, Cape Town, Hamilton, Sydney, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Singapore, Toulouse, and London for 11 men’s and seven women’s events. The participating nations include Argentina, Australia, Canada, Fiji, France, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, New Zealand, Samoa, South Africa, Spain, Uganda, Uruguay, and the USA. The series will be played in two groups going head-to-head to reach the playoffs.
The stakes surrounding the current tournament will be at an all-time high, with the top four position holders securing their tickets to Paris 2024. With the conclusion of the Hong Kong and Dubai events, South Africa and Australia are currently leading the charts in the men’s and women’s series, respectively. The teams are now battling it out in Cape Town across 48 matches scheduled between 9-12 December.
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.
