Feb 9, 2018

BENGALURU: Germany based e-sports major ESL has picked up a minority stake in mobile gaming publisher Nazara Technologies for Rs 26.5 crore. The Mumbai-based firm, which is preparing for an initial public offering, had earlier raised funds from ace stock market investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and financial services firm IIFL.
Nazara has been on an acquisition spree for the past few months picking up stakes in various ventures in the mobile gaming space. Some of the recent investments by the company include Nodwin Gaming, NextWave Multimedia, MasterMind Sports, Moong Labs and HalaPlay.
As part of the latest investment, ESL has also signed an agreement with Nodwin Gaming which will grant a multi-year exclusive licensing rights of ESL system and ESL community platform to Nodwin Gaming. Additionally, Nodwin will get media distribution rights of ESL’s global content in the Indian subcontinent.

“We believe that the partnership with ESL and Nodwin Gaming will enable us to leverage the strength of global experience of ESL, the execution experience of Nodwin Gaming and on-ground networks of Nazara across different countries in emerging markets,” said Manish Agarwal, CEO, Nazara Technologies.

ESL National Championship, ESL Pro League, ESL One and Intel Extreme Masters are some of the top annual gaming competitions operated by ESL.

“Our goal is to bring e-sports to the players and to the fans all around the world. We believe that Nazara, one of the leading mobile games companies, will help us in expanding our ESL operations through strategic local partnerships,” said Ralf Reichert, co-founder and CEO, ESL.

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