Gaming
Loco partners with LiveLike to turbocharge fan experiences with a new loyalty rewards program for gamers
Mumbai: Loco, the world’s leading independent esports and live-streaming platform, has partnered with LiveLike, a leading audience engagement suite. Together, Loco and LiveLike aim to enhance the live-streaming experience for users and provide innovative, interactive features to the gaming community.
Through this partnership, Loco is using the LiveLike platform, which was built to drive brand affinity, retention and loyalty, identify superfans and reward them by allowing them to complete quests, unlock status badges, and earn points that can be redeemed for prizes. Loco has begun to introduce users to the quest feature, available within every livestream, encouraging users to participate and take their viewing journey to new heights. In early testing, Loco has had an overwhelming response, with over 1 million users initiating a quest, and 70% successfully completing at least one.
Loco has introduced four distinctive types of quests – Daily, Fan, Top Fan and Super Fan, carefully designed to engage and reward its users. Based on each quest, users can earn points by time spent watching live streams and unlock premium perks by sending stickers to streamers. LiveLike’s platform seamlessly facilitates all of these quests, efficiently converting points into currency and keeping track of completed quests to update user accounts accordingly. The fan rewards encompass a range of exciting benefits, such as customized and exclusive merchandise giveaways, opportunities to attend meet and greets with top streamers, discount codes for e-commerce and in-game items, and much more. Through these engaging quests and rewards, Loco aims to provide a captivating and fulfilling experience for its users within the gaming community.
Additionally, Loco has also introduced polls, another interactive feature from the LiveLike suite. This integration not only encourages user registration but also enables participants to share their thoughts, promoting a vibrant community and fostering a sense of inclusivity.
Commenting on the partnership, Loco co-founder Anirudh Pandita said, “At Loco, we are on a mission to turbocharge fan experiences, ensuring that each user feels like more than just another person in the crowd. Our partnership with LiveLike allows us to take interactivity to new heights, providing opportunities for fans to engage with streamers in ways they never could before. With Loco, you can truly be a super fan, and that’s the value we strive to deliver to our dedicated community. Exciting new features are already being introduced on our platform, and we are eager to showcase what’s next to our creators and users.”
LiveLike CEO & co-founder Miheer Walavalkar said, “Gamers, game fans and live streamers have set nearly every key trend in our industry over the past few years, yet there is still so much more that can be done to harness their passion. I am incredibly impressed by what Loco has built in such a short amount of time, starting by identifying and successfully connecting with the gaming community in India, and proud that they have chosen LiveLike to raise the bar by providing an unparalleled experience.”
Loco has captivated millions of users with dynamic content that showcases popular gameplay videos of beloved titles such as Battlegrounds Mobile India, Free Fire Max, Valorant, CS GO, Dota 2, Call of Duty, FIFA, and more. Since June 2020, Loco has grown to have 60M Registered Users (with 9x year-on-year daily active user growth); 600K+ streamers (with 4x year-on-year creator sign up growth); and 20M Monthly Watch Hours, which is nearly 4x of the nearest competitor. Today, highly active users spend 60+ minutes on Loco daily watching live content, making it the go-to choice for India’s gaming community.
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.
