Esports business more than doubled to Rs 170.1 crore in FY21 compared to Rs 84.2 crore in FY20.
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed mobile gaming company Nazara Technologies has delivered an 84 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth in revenue to Rs 454.2 crore for the financial year 2020-21 backed by healthy performance at the operating levels.
“Gamified learning and Esports segments have not only demonstrated strong growth momentum in FY21 but have also laid the foundation for predictable growth on account of proven user engagement and retention KPIs in gamified learning and multiyear media licensing and game publisher agreements in case of Esports,” said the company in its BSE filing.
The company has provided just the business update on April 22, the complete financial results will be announced in May 2021.
Gamified learning segment registered a more than nine-fold increase in revenue at Rs 175.8 crore in FY21 over FY20, under which Nazara said Kiddopia had 3,40,282 paying subscribers as of March 2021 which is a 172 percent increase compared to March 2020 when there were 1,97,522 subscribers.
Esports business more than doubled to Rs 170.1 crore in FY21 compared to Rs 84.2 crore in FY20.
Under Esports segment, Sportskeeda witnessed 487 percent growth in monthly active users (MAU) in FY21, said the company. Nodwin continued revenue growth momentum with 75 percent growth in FY21 over FY20.
Media rights contributed to the majority of the revenues in FY21 and game publishers formed the second-largest source of revenue, wherein, Nodwin partnered with them for grass route community tournaments across India. Nodwin also expanded into South Asia in FY21, said the company, adding that it continued to be the dominant player in Esports in India with its marquee IPs like ESL India premiership, Dew Arena etc.
However, Nazara said the telecom operator driven subscription business declined by 8 percent in FY21 over FY20 primarily due to a decline in India revenues in the second half of FY21.
Sports fantasy witnessed disruption in FY21 on account of lack of live matches in the first half of FY21 and regulatory turbulence triggered by legislative ordinances passed in few of the large states banning real money gaming operations, the company added.
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At the operating level, EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) including share of non-controlling interest for FY21 has witnessed 470 percent growth over FY20 and margin expanded to 12 percent in the year FY21 from 4 percent in FY20.
Moreover, Nazara said the board has given its in-principle approval to its subsidiary Halaplay Technologies for raising fund to the tune of Rs 18.02 crore by way of issue of its shares in one or more tranches to the identified investors.
Post completion of the said transaction, the stake of the company in Halaplay will be diluted from 74.02 percent to 64.70 percent on a fully diluted basis.
Further, the company has also entered into a share purchase agreement with Sankalp Sharma and Absolute Sports (ASPL) for the acquisition of a further stake of 1.40 percent for Rs 96.16 lakh in ASPL, a subsidiary of the company. Post completion of the said transaction, the stake of the company in ASPL will increase from 63.90 percent to 65.30 percent.
At 13:13 hours IST, Nazara Technologies share price gained 3.16 percent to trade at Rs 1,660 on the BSE, with a market capitalisation of Rs 5,055.17 crore.
