NIP Group, an esports company cofounded by Mario Ho, a son of the late legendary Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho, ended roughly flat in its first day of trading in the U.S. on Friday, giving it a market capitalization of about $506 million.
Shares of Stockholm-based NIP Group pared an initial gain to close at $9.02 on the Nasdaq stock exchange on Friday, little changed from their $9 initial public offering price. The company raised more than $20 million in the IPO that sold 2.25 million shares at the lowest end of a marketed range.
NIP Group will use the IPO proceeds for potential acquisitions, marketing efforts to grow its fan base and expand its esports teams into Southeast Asia, North America, the Middle East, Japan and South Korea, according to its prospectus.
NIP Group’s listing comes on the backdrop of the inaugural Esports World Cup, which kicked off in Saudi Arabia earlier this month. More than 1,500 pro gamers, including those from NIP Group, flocked to the capital city of Riyadh to compete for a piece of the record-breaking prize pool of more than $60 million. The two-month tournament gave a much-needed boost to the battered esports industry, which saw companies struggle to turn a profit and experience layoffs as hype around professional gaming competitions faded.
Incorporated in 2021 and headquartered in Sweden—the birthplace of popular games like Minecraft and Candy Crush—NIP Group is an esports company with a team of 125 professional gamers from China, Europe and Brazil. The company runs two esports teams: mobile game-focused EStar Gaming in China and console and PC game-focused Ninjas in Pyjamas in Sweden. They compete in popular titles such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Honor of Kings and League of Legends. As of 2023, EStar Gaming has won $10.9 million in prize money from 60 tournaments and Ninjas in Pyjamas has scored $8.2 million across 57 competitions, according to the prospectus.
NIP Group has attracted investors including the likes of Felix Granander, son of late Swedish media and telecom tycoon Jan Stenbeck; the Wuhan municipal government; U.S. billionaire Jeff Yass’ Susquehanna International Group; Forbes Midas Lister Anna Fang’s ZhenFund and Hong Kong pop singer Jackson Wang.
NIP Group’s 2023 revenues rose 27% to $83.7 million from the previous year, though net loss widened to $13.3 million from $6.2 million in the same period. The company earns most of its revenue from talent management services, which includes fees from advertisement, sponsorship and live streaming generated by its 36,000 signed “online entertainers,” a mix of esports athletes and influencers. NIP Group also garners revenue from esports team operations, which includes tournament participation rewards, as well as from esports event production.
NIP Group attributed its steady revenue growth to the increase in fees from sponsorship, advertisement and intellectual property licensing for items like virtual goods. In March, the company struck a partnership with China’s BYD, the world’s largest electric vehicle company by sales. It followed sponsorship deals with brands such as Razer, Red Bull and Samsung.
In the prospectus, NIP Group said it’s looking to diversify its revenue streams through bolstering its businesses in esports education and esports hotels, among others. The company has provided esports training to more than 12 educational institutions in China, with the aim to expand the offering to 50 institutions within the country by 2025. Meanwhile, it has entered a joint venture agreement with an undisclosed hotel chain operator in China to develop and operate hotels that provide esports facilities such as gaming specialized computers.
Mario Ho is chairman and co-CEO of NIP Group, overseeing the company’s Asian business. Previously, Ho was chief marketing officer of Tencent-backed mobile game publisher iDreamsky Technology Holdings.
A finance graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ho ventured into the competitive gaming space in 2018, when he founded the Victory 5 esports club, one of the predecessors of NIP Group, in Shenzhen at the age of 23. Last year, he served as Macau’s coach for Honor of Kings at the Hangzhou Asian Games, where two of the NIP pro gamers competed for China and helped win the esports gold medal.
Ho, who also serves as chairperson of the Macau Esports Federation, is a son of Stanley Ho, the patriarch behind the largest gaming empire in Asia who passed away in 2020 at age 98.
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