Gaming
Skyesports unveils THE FINALS: Esports showdown in Chennai
Mumbai: Skyesports, a premier global IP and community builder for gaming and esports, has unveiled THE FINALS Esports Revolution Showdown, an intense esports tournament with the country’s top gamers as a LAN event in Chennai, India.
THE FINALS Esports Revolution will feature four teams of five players each, featuring the country’s top gaming creators and esports athletes, competing across a double-elimination bracket in Chennai, India on July 7 (Sunday) for a share of the $5,000 prize pool. Fans can tune into all the action live on the Skyesports YouTube and THE FINALS India YouTube channels.
https://www.youtube.com/@skyesportsgaming
https://www.youtube.com/@thefinalsindia
Commenting on THE FINALS Esports Revolution, Skyesports founder and CEO Shiva Nandy said, “We are thrilled to host THE FINALS Esports Revolution. With its new Terminal Attack mode ushering in a much more competitive aspect to the game, we aim to showcase this to Indian gamers with our first esports tournament for the FPS title. This is just the beginning as we will be bringing more exciting tournaments and content around the game. We already are seeing considerable interest from prominent esports organizations in India to take part in THE FINALS.”
The four teams will be led by Scout, Mortal, Sentinel, and Binks and will feature other renowned creators like Fa2, Vaadhi, Miss Senorita, and more. Besides the exciting esports action, fans can stay tuned to their socials for more exciting THE FINALS content.
THE FINALS is a free-to-play first-person shooter available on PC and consoles. With a highly dynamic and destructible environment coupled with various soldier classes weapons with distinct equipment and abilities, the game makes for a really fun and exciting title. The title has been generating a lot of noise and garnering popularity in India currently.
THE FINALS Esports Revolution 2024 will be played on the newly-introduced Terminal Attack mode where two teams of five will go head-to-head to determine the winners. All matches will be a best-of-one, except for the Grand Finals which will be a best-of-three series.
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.
