iWorld
Prime Video expands Chandru Lakshminarayanan’s role
UK: Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios have widened Chandru Lakshminarayanan’s mandate, handing the senior executive a cross-border role spanning business, strategy and international programming as the streaming wars intensify.
Lakshminarayanan steps into the role of head of business and strategy for the UK, Nordics and Benelux, alongside head of international programming, previously focused on APAC. The move signals Amazon’s appetite for tighter strategic control and sharper programming bets across markets.
Lakshminarayanan has been with Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios since 2023, most recently as head of programming strategy for EMEA. In that role, he helped shape content direction and commercial priorities across a diverse and fast-growing region.
Before Amazon, Lakshminarayanan built a career at the intersection of content and commerce. At BT and EE, he oversaw TV and sports businesses, handling content profit and loss, propositions and commercial performance across aggregated services featuring Sky, Netflix and public broadcasters. A prior stint at Sky saw him run propositions for Sky Cinema, Sky Sports and Sky Store, focusing on packaging, pricing and transactional video on demand.
Earlier chapters were rooted in content creation and youth brands. At Viacom’s MTV in India, Lakshminarayanan led programming and content profit and loss, steered music and unscripted shows, and executive-produced formats such as Coke Studio and MTV Unplugged. Roles at BBH, Disney and TAM rounded out a profile that blends data, marketing and creative instincts.
The promotion comes as global streamers juggle slowing subscriber growth, rising content costs and fiercer local competition. Amazon, with its mix of commerce and content, is betting that sharper strategy and bolder programming can keep viewers — and wallets — inside its ecosystem.
In streaming, scale is common and noise is cheap. The advantage goes to those who can turn strategy into hits. Amazon has placed its wager; now comes the box-office test.
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.
