Gaming
Game on as Parliament clears Bill giving esports its sporting stripes
MUMBAI: India just hit “start” on a new sporting era. On 21 August, Parliament passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, a landmark move that bans all online money games but officially elevates esports to the league of legitimate competitive sport. For the first time, esports has been uncoupled from gambling, betting, and fantasy money play, and placed firmly under the ministry of youth affairs and sports, which will set tournament standards, support academies, and weave esports into India’s sporting fabric.
The timing was pixel-perfect. Days earlier, 19-year-old Ved Bamb, better known by his gamer tag Beelzeboy, became India’s first esports World Champion by defeating Spain’s Leo Marin at the Pokémon Go Worlds. Esports has been steadily climbing the podium: officially recognised by India in 2022, it debuted as a medal sport at the Asian Games in Hangzhou and snagged a historic bronze in DOTA 2 at the 2022 Commonwealth Esports Championships. Next year, it returns to the Asian Games medal tally and will also feature at the 3rd Asian Youth Games in October.
Back home, esports is levelling up from grassroots to glory. This year’s Khelo India Youth Games in Bihar featured esports as a demo sport, with states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Nagaland, and Bihar championing tournaments. Nationally, the Waves Esports Championships, backed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, signalled that esports is no longer niche, but mainstream. Nodwin Gaming’s flagship Battlegrounds Mobile India Masters Series (BGMS), with a Rs 1.5 crore prize pool in its fourth season and female athletes competing for the first time, shows the professional rigour that mirrors cricket or football.
“The Bill unlocks a zero-to-hero pipeline from state-level championships to global majors,” said Nodwin Gaming cxo-founder & MD Akshat Rathee which is grooming players for EVO, Esports Nations Cup, and even Counter-Strike Majors. S8ul, India’s most celebrated esports org, has its athletes training in Navi Mumbai bootcamps and recently competed at the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, where the prize pool crossed Rs 600 crore. Nodwin Gaming co-founder Animesh Agarwal called the government’s clarity a “game-changer” that will win parents’ trust and bring more young talent into the fold.
The ecosystem’s growth isn’t just about skill but also kit. With PC and console titles set to feature in the 2026 Asian Games and possibly the Olympic Esports Games in 2027, high-performance gear is becoming non-negotiable. Cyberpowerpc India COO Vishal Parekh noted: “If cricket needs pitches, esports needs world-class rigs.” His company has donated PCs worth lakhs to bridge the infrastructure gap and prepare India’s next champions.
As India marks National Sports Day, esports now stands shoulder to shoulder with traditional sports. With structured training, global tournaments, and government backing, the nation’s gamers are no longer just chasing high scores, they’re chasing history.
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.
