Gaming
Nodwin Gaming gets Rs 164 crore backing from PUBG creator Krafton
KOLKATA: Built on the world's largest youth demographic and fuelled by affordable smartphone and data prices, e-sports has seen a surging demand which has led to Nodwin Gaming receiving a minority investment of Rs 164 crore from South Korean gaming firm Krafton.
Nodwin Gaming will channelise these funds to accelerate the development of e-sports in South Asia, Middle East and Africa, support talent, provide better gaming infrastructure and technology and conceptualise, organise and execute a multitude of tournament IPs at the national and international level.
This round of funding follows previous investments from Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Nazara Technologies and from JetSynthesys backed by Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan.
“Esports will be a key pillar to the growth of sports entertainment in the future. It sits at a wonderful intersection of sports, entertainment and technology where nations such as India can pave the path. With Krafton coming on board, we have an endorsement from the mecca of gaming and e-sports – South Korea, on what we are building from India for the world based on our competence in mobile first markets,” said Nodwin Gaming co-founder and managing director Akshat Rathee.
Krafton is one of the top gaming companies in South Korea and is the creator of intellectual properties and games such as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), TERA, Golf King, Castle Burn among others.
India banned PUBG and hundreds of other apps with affiliation to China last year citing cybersecurity concerns. Krafton has been attempting to bring PUBG Mobile back in India, with no luck yet. To assuage the Indian government’s concerns about users’ security, the South Korean firm said it had cut ties with Chinese publisher Tencent.
Krafton CEO Changhan Kim said, “Krafton is excited to partner with Nodwin Gaming to help foster the promising esports ecosystem and engage with our fans and players in India. Taking the momentum from this partnership, we will explore additional investment opportunities in the region to uphold our commitment and dedication in cultivating the local video game, esports, entertainment, and tech industries.”
Post the transaction, Nazara will continue to own a stake in excess of 50 per cent in Nodwin Gaming. Nazara invested the e-sports firm in 2018 and this investment has created a value in excess of 6.44X in three years.
Nazara technologies CEO Manish Agarwal said, “Nazara has been an early and strong believer in the potential of esports to disrupt the sports entertainment market and we believe this partnership between Krafton and the Nazara group will accelerate the growth of esports and open doors for collaboration between Indian and Korean gaming companies in future.”
JetSynthesys VC and MD Rajan Navani, the founder investor who helped envision Nodwin Gaming at the conception stage itself, added, “We identified the early opportunity in esports as a key pillar to build the gaming ecosystem in India and this investment is an endorsement of the tremendous potential of esports in the journey of a new Atmanirbhar Bharat. Akshat, Gautam and other members of the founding team are true gems of a youthful India that is raring to conquer the world and we at JetSynthesys are excited about what the future holds for us.”
Gaming
Dream Sports sees 100 plus exits after gaming ban forces overhaul
Company splits into eight units as real money gaming law hits revenue.
MUMBAI: For a company built on fantasy leagues, reality has suddenly rewritten the rulebook. More than 100 employees have exited Dream Sports, the parent of Dream11, after the company reorganised its operations following India’s ban on real money online gaming. The shake up came after the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 came into force in August 2025, prohibiting games where users deposit money expecting winnings. The regulation struck at the heart of the fantasy gaming industry and dramatically affected Dream Sports’ core business, wiping out about 95 percent of its revenue and all of its profits.
In response, the Mumbai based company shifted into what chief executive officer Harsh Jain described as “startup mode”, splitting its operations into eight independent business units in December.
Around 700 employees were reassigned across these newly formed ventures based on their experience and interests. However, roughly 15 percent opted to leave the company.
A spokesperson for Dream Sports said many of those who exited were experienced professionals accustomed to running scaled businesses rather than early stage ventures.
“Since some of these employees were experienced with running high scale businesses and not startups, around 15 percent chose to leave and join other scaled companies or start ventures of their own,” the spokesperson said.
Despite the departures, the company noted that the attrition rate is only slightly higher than its earlier level of around 10 percent before the ban. Dream Sports now has close to 950 employees and is not currently hiring, choosing instead to focus on stabilising its existing workforce.
The restructuring has transformed Dream Sports from a fantasy gaming company into a broader sports entertainment platform. The eight units now operate independently, each focusing on different segments of the sports and technology ecosystem.
These include Dream11, sports streaming platform Fancode, sports travel service DreamSetGo, mobile game Dream Cricket and artificial intelligence initiative Dream Sports AI, which includes sports analytics platform Dream Play.
Other ventures include fintech product Dream Money, open source initiative Dream Horizon and the philanthropic arm Dream Sports Foundation.
As part of cost saving efforts, Dream Sports also relocated its headquarters from Bandra Kurla Complex to Worli earlier this year. The new office, called Dream Sports Stadium, brings teams from its various brands together under one roof to improve collaboration and operational efficiency.
Jain had earlier said the company removed bonus lock in timelines for employees hired in recent years, allowing those who wished to leave to exit with pro rata payouts.
“We want people who are fully into the startup mode and willing to work for it, and we will share that reward if it comes,” he said.
Founded in 2008 by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth, Dream Sports was last valued at 8 billion dollars after raising 840 million dollars in 2021 from investors including Falcon Edge Capital, DST Global, D1 Capital Partners, RedBird Capital Partners, Tiger Global Management, TPG and Footpath Ventures.
The new gaming law has forced several companies in the fantasy gaming sector to either shut down or pivot their business models, signalling a significant reset for one of India’s fastest growing digital entertainment industries.
