Gaming
Poker for People: Moneycontrol introduces first online, offline tournament
MUMBAI: Moneycontrol, a business and financial online platform of Network18, has joined hands with The Spartan Poker, an online gaming platform to announce ‘Poker for People’.
A one-of-a-kind competition, Moneycontrol introduced an online and offline poker championship to its users for the very first time. The tournament, with a prize of Rs 25 lakh will offer the poker enthusiast a chance to try their luck at the table and take home a cash prize.
With the game of poker being highly skill-based that requires utmost foresight, planning and the ability to take calculative risks, Moneycontrol draws a parallel between the card game and the stock market for their audience.
To participate, one can register themselves on a page created on the Moneycontrol website. This will avail them a ticket to the live game to be held in Mumbai on 29 March 2020. The top 20 players from each qualifier will get guaranteed seats at the main event.
Each of these 16 qualifiers will be a freezeout tournament, indicating a win-or-bust format, which won’t allow a contestant the option for a re-buy should they lose. These 16 rounds will see a total of 320 players qualify for Main Event.
Moneycontrol’s business head Gautam Shelar, said, “Moneycontrol, as a brand, believes in empowering its audiences with the latest financial know-how and equip them with information and advice that will help them make smarter and better investment decisions.”
He added, “Poker is purely a skill-based mind game where the outcomes are decided by the aptitude and analytical capability of the player, which is extremely similar to the stock market. In addition to their stellar poker skills, we are confident that with the lessons learned through their stock market dealings and investments, participants shall use these experiences as well as they look to take home the grand prize.”
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.
