Abhishek Securities

Gaming and sports media company Nazara Technologies today announced that it has acquired a majority stake of 51% in Paper Boat Apps. Paper Boat Apps is the company that developed Kiddopia, a popular educational games app which is targeted at kids in the 2-7 year age bracket. Nazara issued shares worth INR 43 crores to complete the final tranche of the deal. This transaction is part of the Rs. 83 crore deal to acquire a majority stake in Paper Boat Apps, valuing the company at over Rs. 150 crores. Last month, Nazara acquired a majority stake in fantasy platform Halaplay Technologies. According to the release issued by Nazara, Kiddopia now has an annualized revenue run rate of over Rs.175 crores. Kiddopia was launched in 2017 by husband-wife duo, Anupam and Anshu Dhanuka. The app has more than 5 millions downloads and over 300,000 subscribers. Anupam Dhanuka, co-founder and CEO, Kiddopia said, “This investment from Nazara has helped us focus on product enhancement and m...

Online Gaming: Stars are aligned for a strong uptake Unlike other Asian economies (like China, Korea etc), India till now has not shown major uptake in online gaming. But now with improving telco infra, evolving gaming ecosystem & with huge Millennial/Gen Z base we see growth picking up. Recent lockdown led to a strong uptake in online gaming. Monetization though may take time given nascent stage of the market. India online gaming could be classified as 1) Casual gaming ($630 mn in 2019); 2) Skill based like Fantasy games & card based (2019: $620 mn) and 3) PC/console based (2019: $650 mn). The overall gaming industry was $1.9bn in 2019 and is expected to be $8.4bn in 2024 (35% CAGR) as per Redseer, with Fantasy games growing fastest. Regulation is an overhang & could improve. Indian laws permit game of skill but not game of chance. Fantasy games have been banned/have limited access in 5 states. Some of India gaming cos are Gametion, Nazara, Dream11, Octro, Moonfrog labs. N...

Mumbai-based  Nazara Technologies  has been on an expanding spree in online gaming sector. Founded by  Nitish Mittersain  in 2000, the global gaming and sports media company boasting of a network of more than 100 million users in the country has invested in several viable start-ups over the last 18 months, including Nodwin Gaming, Next Wave Multimedia, Sportskeeda, Mastermind Sports, Paper Boat Apps, Moonglabs Technologies, CrimzonCode, Bakbuck and InstaSportz. Having business operations in over 64 countries,  Nazara Technologie s is now in the headlines for increasing its stake in HalaPlay by buying  Kae Capital ‘s stake for  14.6 Crores . This huge investment in HalaPlay makes the company the majority stakeholder in the leading fantasy sports platform. “The company has now gone ahead and bought Kae Capital’s stocks in Halaplay making it the majority investors in the fantasy sports vertical,” a statement by Nazara Technologies read. Sandip Ginodi...

According to a report "Gaming-India Story" released by boutique investment bank Maple Capital, Advisors, the investment in the industry expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 22 per cent and is currently valued at $930, million. The bank expects the industry to grow at 41 per cent annually due to the growth of digital infrastructure and substantial rise in quality and engaging gaming content. The current lock down in the country has also given a renewed push to gaming, with consumption growing at least 20-30 per cent despite significant impact on live sports,a big driver of fantasy sports gaming. Man gaming platforms are Games2win, Moonfrog Labs, Junglee Games, 99 games, and Nazara Technologies. The key trends in the Indian gaming space are multi player formats increasing,investors showing more interest in Indian Gaming startups, more and more people considering gaming as a career and increase in consumption and creation of local Indian gaming content. Sandip Ginodia ,...