Gaming
Riot Games unveils Valorant’s latest mural art, billboards for India’s gaming community
Mumbai: Riot Games has unveiled its new mural art and billboards to celebrate Valorant’s launch of its first desi agent with the Indian gaming community. Encouraging the Indian gaming community to join in on its celebration, the wall mural and billboards have been spread across prime locations in India, showcasing Riot’s commitment to the growing gaming culture in India.
Furthering its commitment to the Indian market, synergising with local fans and building hyperlocal experiences to attract and inspire players across the country, Riot Games recently launched its first-ever desi agent Harbor in Valorant. With a bright wall painting stretched across the road capturing Harbor’s discovery of an ancient artefact, high-speed chases across streets, and more, the mural covers an area of 8400 sq ft at Shahid Bhagat Singh Marg Road, Colaba, South Mumbai.
This mural, which reflects Harbor’s water-bending powers and roguishly charming personality, is colourful, vibrant, and will surely resonate with Indian fans. Similarly, featuring a total of 17 billboards spotlighting the names of creators and organisations at the heart of the Valorant community, the initiative aims to celebrate their contributions and the success of Valorant thus far. These billboards can be spotted at prime locations across the country, including cities such as Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi NCR & Baroda.
This launch also comes at an opportune time, when online gaming has been growing exponentially in India. With the recent announcement of e-sports being recognised as an official multi-sports event in India, the country is home to a vibrant gaming ecosystem, which further opens doors for bigger opportunities to engage and attract Indian audiences in the future.
Riot Games marketing lead India and South Asia Ashish Gupta said, “We are thrilled to unveil this artwork as we celebrate the Indian community’s growing passion for gaming. Given the growing popularity of Valorant’s newest and first Indian agent, Agent Harbor, we look forward to bringing more hyperlocal experiences that resonate with the country’s diverse and dynamic community in 2023. With expressive murals and billboards that form an integral part of this initiative, we wish to express our gratitude to the Indian gaming community, especially the creators and teams who are behind the success of Valorant in India. We are very optimistic about the growth of the country’s gaming community and look forward to innovating more inclusive, dynamic, and immersive products and experiences for our audiences in India and across the globe.”
As part of the celebration, Riot Games has published a video With Love, from Valorant featuring the creators and e-sports organisations and their billboards.
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.
