MUMBAI: Investment action is heating u and how in the Indian sports content arena and how. A little under three months since fantasy sports platform Dream11 announced the launch of FanCode, an “ad-free multi-sport aggregator platform, offering a wide spectrum of content, commerce and community engagement”, rival gaming company Nazara Technologies is making some big moves of its own.
According to filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs accessed by Inc42, the new additions to Nazara’s portfolio are SportsKeeda, a sports content website run by Absolute Sports Pvt Ltd and SportsUnity, a mobile quizzing platform. Further, it has also increased its stake in HalaPlay, a real money gaming app.
All three investments have been approved by Nazara’s board in a voting ballot on June 9, Inc42 reports.
The SportsKeeda stake buy-in ties in with Nazara’s plans of expanding the reach of content from English to vernacular languages and the video format, the media platform focused on the Indian startup ecosystem reports. Nazara aims to create a subscription business model for sports enthusiasts and curate vernacular content within the sports domain for mass consumption.
According to Inc42, Nazara Technologies has invested over Rs 350 million in SportsKeeda.
Founded in 2009 by Srinivas Cuddapah and Porush Jain, SportsKeeda is a sports news and content website, with articles, opinion pieces and forums for fans to interact with each other.
The company claims to have over 15 million users and 45 million unique users per month. Nazara is looking at a strategic investment to consolidate its holdings in Absolute Sports.
Founded in 2016, Delhi-based Sports Unity offers a quizzing platform called Qunami as well as an eponymous cricket-based quizzing app. Its claims to have over 100,000 users.
Founded in 2000 by Nitish Mittersain, Nazara Technologies is a mobile games developer and publisher, which also runs its own seed fund for investment in the gaming and sports ecosystem.
The company has received total funding of $102 million, getting funding from ESL for a minority stake and $28 million from Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.
In the past, Nazara has acquired NODWIN Gaming, DJuzz and MyGamma and has invested in startups such as MasterMind Sports, BakBuck, Truly Social, InstaSportz, Moong Labs, and HalaPlay.
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