NODWIN Gaming, a worldwide youth entertainment, gaming and esports firm, has expanded into mainstream sport with the launch of NODWIN Sports activities, a brand new division centered on growing sporting properties, mass-participation occasions and business alternatives.

The corporate has appointed former Adidas India govt Gurbaksh Singh Virdi as vp of NODWIN Sports activities to guide the division.

NODWIN Sports activities will develop new-age sports activities and active-fitness competitions, create mass-participation life-style properties and work with sports activities federations, governing our bodies, rights holders and types.

Its operations will cowl 4 areas: new-age sports activities and mass-participation mental properties; sports activities advisory and engagement with governing our bodies; strategic partnerships and business alliances; and white-label execution and operations.

The division may also work on creating unique sports activities properties, business methods, model and media partnerships, manufacturing and on-ground execution.

“Sport has all the time had the power to convey folks collectively at scale, and the way in which audiences expertise sport is altering quickly,” NODWIN Gaming co-founder and managing director Akshat Rathee stated.

“We see a chance to construct properties that replicate how youthful audiences take part, compete, comply with and interact with sport right this moment. NODWIN Sports activities offers us a devoted platform to work with sporting establishments, athletes, manufacturers and companions to construct these alternatives,” he stated.

Virdi joins NODWIN Gaming after a profession spanning sports activities advertising and marketing, athlete administration, business partnerships and the event of sporting properties.

Most not too long ago, he was sports activities advertising and marketing lead at Adidas India, the place his remit coated cricket, operating, coaching, soccer and motorsport. He labored throughout partnerships involving the BCCI and the Indian Olympic Affiliation.

Virdi beforehand held roles at Crimson Bull, U Sports activities, Puma and Cornerstone.

At Crimson Bull, his work included Crimson Bull Campus Cricket and athlete administration. He later labored at U Sports activities, the place he led operations for Professional Kabaddi League franchise U Mumba and was concerned with the U Dream Soccer programme, which labored with Tata Trusts and German Bundesliga golf equipment together with Borussia Dortmund and TSG Hoffenheim.

His subsequent roles included work on group sports activities at Puma and athlete-led mental properties at Cornerstone, together with initiatives linked to Virat Kohli’s One8 model.

“India’s sports activities panorama is getting into an vital section of evolution, formed by a brand new era of audiences who’re experiencing sport throughout competitors, participation, leisure, content material and tradition,” Virdi stated.

“NODWIN Sports activities offers us a chance to convey these views collectively and construct properties which are related to how the following era desires to expertise sport. The ambition will not be solely to create new alternatives for participation, however to assist construct the tradition round sport for the following decade, one that’s extra accessible, partaking, modern and related to youth tradition,” he added.

The brand new division will draw on NODWIN Gaming’s present operations in content material, manufacturing, partnerships and neighborhood engagement.

The corporate’s portfolio contains the BGMI Masters Collection, Comedian Con India, NH7 Weekender and VCSA, reflecting its enlargement from esports right into a broader mixture of gaming, reside leisure, music and youth-focused properties.

NODWIN Gaming reported consolidated income of Rs 658 crore for the 2025-26 monetary yr, up about 25% from Rs 524 crore within the earlier yr. It recorded earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of Rs 21 crore, in contrast with a lack of Rs 14 crore in 2024-25.

Based in 2014 by Akshat Rathee and Gautam Virk, NODWIN Gaming has obtained funding from corporations together with Nazara Applied sciences, Krafton, Sony Group Company and JetSynthesys.