MUMBAI: Next Wave Multimedia, the gaming technology subsidiary of Nazara Technologies has inked a 3-year licensing deal with Cricket Australia (CA) to launch the official game on mobiles and smartphones of the KFC Big Bash League (BBL) and the Rebel Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL), two of the world’s premier domestic T20 competitions.
The Chennai-based Next Wave will use CA’s intellectual property (IP) to launch the game in mid-November, according to an Economic Times report. This will be a massive step for Nazara to grow its investment in different forms of virtual sports gaming across the 61 countries it has a presence in, having picked a majority stake in Next Wave earlier this year and in NODWIN, India’s largest gaming solutions and esports company. Nazara also has similar partnerships with IPL teams, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings.
On the other hand, Next Wave has increased its own portfolio with the Big Bash deal as it also owns the IP for one of the most loved mobile cricket games in India, the World Cricket Championship (WCC). The company has more than 15 million active users every month for its games.
“At annual revenues of about $3.2 billion, Australia is a very mature market in terms of cricket gaming. To enter such a market with an established player like Cricket Australia helps us control our costs on customer acquisition even as it opens up the doors to take our WCC games to other international markets.” PR Rajendran, CEO of Next Wave Multimedia was quoted as saying to ET.
“We at Nazara believe that cricket fans around the globe have been missing a high-quality gaming experience on their mobile devices unlike their counterpart soccer fans.
“This partnership with Cricket Australia gives Next Wave an opportunity to offer a console-quality cricket gameplay experience on their mobile devices and attract younger audiences to virtual Big Bash games.” Manish Agarwal, CEO of Nazara Technologies added.
“I’m really excited to take our mobile game ‘Big Bash Cricket’ to the next level in collaboration with Next Wave Multimedia.
“We look forward to offering Big Bash fans in Australia and around the world an even more realistic representation of the game they love with improved graphics and game play as well as all new features including a multiplayer option.” Patrick Horan, Cricket Australia’s digital gaming manager signed off.
