Gaming
National Poker Series India 2025 unveils Rs 100 crore prize pool
Mumbai: The National Poker Series India (NPS) in its fifth edition in March 2025, promises to elevate India’s poker landscape to newer heights. Exclusively hosted on PokerBaazi, NPS 2025 boasts an unprecedented ₹100 crore prize pool, positioning it as the biggest and most prestigious poker event in the country’s history.
Baazi Games founder & CEO Navkiran Singh commented, “The National Poker Series India is a platform that transcends mere competition; it is a movement that recognizes poker as a serious skill-based mind sport in India. Each edition is designed to emphasize strategy, precision, and mental endurance, enabling players to refine their abilities while promoting the sport across the nation. We are proud to host the National Poker Series India for its fifth edition with a ₹100 crore prize pool—the biggest our country has seen yet. We aim to deliver an unparalleled experience at PokerBaazi, to empower the talent of poker players across India.”
Building on the overwhelming success of the 2024 edition, which drew over 2.25 lakh entries and offered a prize pool of ₹62.5 crore and 450 medals, NPS 2025 is set to raise the bar even higher. Players can anticipate an event of extraordinary scale in 2025, making the fifth edition the most competitive and rewarding yet.
Since its inception, the National Poker Series India has attracted over 5.33 lakh entries, hosted 404 high-stakes tournaments, and awarded 1,221 players with medals, solidifying its position as India’s premier platform for competitive poker. In the 2024 edition, Deepak Singh from Delhi emerged as the overall champion with three gold, one silver, and one bronze medals. The competition was fierce, with Abhishek Sonu from Bihar and Samay Modi from Maharashtra also securing podium finishes. Maharashtra led the medal tally with over 100 medals, closely followed by Delhi with 83, illustrating the regional pride and intense rivalry that NPS has come to symbolize.
The schedule of the tournament series that surpasses the rewards of some of the country’s largest sports leagues is expected to follow soon.
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.
