eSports

Team Nigma and Galaxy Racer Announce Merger

Published

3 years ago

September 20, 2021

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Team Nigma will head up the esports team division of Galaxy Racer, the fastest growing gaming and lifestyle organisation from MENA, to become Nigma Galaxy, which will house rosters across all major esports titles and will look to create better opportunities for players in the Middle East and become a globally recognised brand

Galaxy Racer, the biggest esports, content and lifestyle organisation, based in the Middle East, North Africa and South-East Asia, and Team Nigma, the biggest competitive gaming team in the MENA region, which was founded by The International 7 Champions, today announce they are merging to become Nigma Galaxy, a new esports powerhouse.

Based in Abu Dhabi, Team Nigma will become Nigma Galaxy, heading up the esports team division of Galaxy Racer which currently carries rosters across all major titles with over 60 players from over 20 countries. The merger will unite both brands, including their ambitions for the MENA region and international growth, while also allowing each to retain their visual identity.

European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

Together the new organisation will look to build an authentic voice for the MENA region, establish itself as the #1 esports organisation in the world and give its players an international platform. Nigma Galaxy will look to become a household name for players of the region to be proud of, and with aspirations to become a global player it will also use existing resources from Galaxy Racer to expand further within Europe, South and North America, Southeast Asia and China.

Galaxy Racer launched in 2019 and has already become one of the biggest esports organisations globally, and the only entity in the MENA region with a significant international presence. The organisation prides itself on having five separate business offerings; Esports Teams, Content Creators, Tournaments Management, Merchandising and Lifestyle and GXR Records, a newly established record label that already carries two signed artists from MENA.

Within its first year of opening, Galaxy Racer onboarded some of the biggest content creators in the MENA and Asia regions and currently carries over 80 creators with a reach of over 370 million followers across all platforms. Its content creators roster includes some of the biggest YouTube channels with over 2 billion views across all platforms; Abo Flah, the biggest and fastest-growing gaming channel in the Arabic speaking world. Galaxy Racer also carries esports rosters across all major titles including League of Legends, VALORANT, CS:GO, Free Fire, PUBG MOBILE, BGMI and Fortnite.

Paul Roy, CEO and Founder of Galaxy Racer, commented: “We are excited to announce our merger with Team Nigma to transform our competitive esports division into Nigma Galaxy. Team Nigma’s leadership team carries vast experience as professional players, which we believe will be a great asset to building and supporting all the teams under the Nigma Galaxy banner.

“Celebrating and nurturing the untapped gaming community around the world is what Galaxy Racer was founded on. With this merger, we believe we will be able to truly unlock this potential and shape the future of esports on a global scale.”

Team Nigma, a professional Dota 2 esports organisation, was founded in 2019 by former Team Liquid members Mohamed Morad and Christoph Timm as well as four out of five of the champions of The International 2017, Miracle-, Gh, MinD_ContRoL and KuroKy. Within the space of a year, Team Nigma secured a landmark partnership with Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, becoming the first esports team to be sponsored by an airline. Based out of Abu Dhabi, Team Nigma also recently partnered with one of the largest telco providers, Etisalat, hosting the biggest Dota 2 tournament in the MENA region – ‘Rising Stars’.

The merger will see Team Nigma become Nigma Galaxy, the esports team division of Galaxy Racer which will be led by Team Nigma’s co-founders, Mohamed Morad, Christoph Timm and Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi. Leveraging Team Nigma’s vast experience, they will help to nurture the development of each roster with players from Nigma’s current Dota 2 roster also joining the new division.

Mohammed Morad, Co-Founder of Team Nigma commented: “We are thrilled to announce our merger with Galaxy Racer. Galaxy Racer has a brilliant understanding of the entertainment business and together we share a mutual passion for supporting and nurturing talent within the MENA region. There is also a lot of natural synergy between our brands with Nigma meaning “star” in Arabic. Before this merger, Nigma was a single star. By becoming Nigma Galaxy, we will have a Galaxy full of stars.”

Nigma Galaxy will operate as a standalone entity with its own budget, brand, direction and identity, retaining the current Team Nigma colours. While Galaxy Racer will also retain its brand identity and will be able to focus on developing its already-robust content creator structure and additional branches to the business. Nigma released its first apparel line last year and will be updating their merchandise in line with the brand update. The organisation will be sending free merchandise to all fans who purchased its first line.

Nigma Galaxy and Galaxy Racer share a common goal of creating better opportunities in the Middle East and Asia to support home-grown talent. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and MENA region is considered to be one of the fastest-growing gaming sectors globally, with 100 million gamers playing in 2020 alone.

According to a recent YouGov study, while familiarity with esports in the MENA was lower compared to Asian countries like China, the population had much higher engagement compared to Western countries like the United States and United Kingdom. The study went on to highlight that in the Middle East, Egypt has the highest gamer population (68%) followed by the UAE (65%), Saudi Arabia (61%) and Iraq (57%) – these four countries have bigger gaming populations than France, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

However, without the infrastructure, funding and support within the region, most competitive gamers have been forced to forge their careers abroad. This merger will enable Nigma Galaxy to create a better support structure and provide upcoming talent with the resources needed for them to be able to pursue a career in the esports and gaming industry. This includes plans to create and develop the Nigma Galaxy Academy, which will help nurture young gamers’ talent within the region.

Nigma Galaxy will also join Abu Dhabi Gaming (AD Gaming), a new initiative that launched earlier this year. Pioneered by twofour54 Abu Dhabi, the initiative will champion the development of regional talent and bring a calendar of year-round gaming events to Abu Dhabi, and aggregates the emirate’s drive to build a thriving gaming and esports ecosystem.

eSports

IESF Concludes 16th Ordinary General Meeting in Riyadh

Published

3 days ago

November 20, 2024

George Miller

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

The International Esports Federation (IESF) held its 16th Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) on November 18, bringing together over 150 delegates from the member federations in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Before the official start of the assembly, IESF welcomed representatives from the Saudi Olympic & Paralympic Committee (SOPC) and the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF). Abdulaziz Baeshin, CEO of SOPC presented Saudi Arabia’s progress in Esports and sports development and their vision moving forward. Frank Weber, Director of Corporate Marketing at EWCF discussed the success of the EWCF and highlight upcoming plans for the future.

In his opening speech, IESF President HRH Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud expressed gratitude for the number of delegates who attended the assembly. He reflected on the federation’s success and achievements over the past year, the key areas for improvement, and the necessity of continued close collaboration among members.

The first session of the assembly continued with reviewing motions submitted by the members and voting on their acceptance or rejection. The members also voted to grant Full Membership status to Canada, Germany, Latvia, and Malta.

The second session of the OGM was dedicated to electing key positions within the IESF Board and committees. The results are:

Board Member: Mr. Samart Benjamin Assarasakorn
Treasurer: Mr. Daniel Wen Jun Loy

Membership Committee Members:

Mr. Soufiane El Filali
Mr. Jaroslav Melishek

Audit, Risk, and Governance Committee:

Chair: Mr. Tomas Gabris
Members: Mr. Jacopo Ierussi and Mr. Stevan Nenad Rosic

Regulatory Committee Chair:

Mr. Ido Orel Brosh

In his concluding statement, IESF General Secretary Boban Totovski congratulated the assembly on a productive and democratic meeting. He expressed his appreciation for the valuable insights shared by members and their dedication to the growth of the IESF.

“This year’s assembly demonstrated the strength of our community and the shared vision that drives IESF forward. I thank everyone for their contributions to a democratic and smooth process, and I look forward to welcoming more member federations to our family next year and even greater success” said Totovski.

The OGM 2024 in Riyadh was another step forward in IESF’s mission to unite the Esports world under a shared vision. With the growing number of national federations, the IESF continues to cement its role as the largest Esports family.

The post IESF Concludes 16th Ordinary General Meeting in Riyadh appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

Chad Kinlay Chief Marketing Officer TrafficGuard

Influencers, Content and eSports: Unleashing the Power of Dynamic Strategies in the eSports Ecosystem

Published

5 days ago

November 18, 2024

GamingAmericas.com

influencers,-content-and-esports:-unleashing-the-power-of-dynamic-strategies-in-the-esports-ecosystem

The sports betting industry is undergoing significant growth worldwide with restrictions loosening and new markets emerging. New opportunities create fierce competition among sportsbooks, and this has led to them devising increasingly expensive and aggressive advertising campaigns.

Public figures and influencers have become a popular go-to for sportsbooks promotions, such as Michael Jordan partnering with DraftKings or Jamie Foxx with BetMGM. Big names are costly, and sportsbooks haven’t realised the ad spend used on these campaigns is going to waste. Without the right precautions in place, up to 22% of ad spend is lost to fraud according to Juniper Research.

The big budgets behind high-profile brand campaigns need to translate into real user engagement. To achieve this, sportsbooks must ensure their digital channels are optimised to capture the surge in interest these campaigns generate. Without proper management, this potential can be lost to inefficiencies like invalid traffic, diluting the impact of their investments.

Ad Budgets Going to Waste

In today’s competitive landscape, sportsbooks need to make every click count. In 2023 alone, The American Gaming Association estimated that over $1.9 billion was spent on advertising campaigns in the US. With such a large amount of spend in play, it’s crucial that sportsbooks see as big a Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS) as possible.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns are vital for sportsbook growth but can be disrupted by invalid traffic (IVT). IVT includes both malicious activity, like fraudulent bots, and unintentional actions, such as users repeatedly clicking on ads without intent to convert. These interactions inflate impressions and skew campaign performance data, leading to higher customer acquisition costs (CACs) and inefficient allocation of ad spend. Effectively managing IVT ensures that ad budgets drive genuine engagement and measurable growth.

Investing into influencers and celebrities also forces sportsbooks to bid on brand keywords to prevent their competitors stealing potential users searching for them. Up to 29% of PPC budgets are spent on this bidding according to Wordstream. As competition for brand keywords increases, PPC budgets are depleted without generating any new net revenue.

As campaigns become more expensive than ever, sportsbooks can’t afford to let profits fall to ad fraud. Instead of cutting budgets, sportsbooks should focus on analysing their campaign strategy.

Problematic Navigational Traffic

Navigational traffic is also presenting a significant challenge to sportsbooks alongside ad fraud. Navigational traffic refers to existing customers clicking on branded keywords to log into their accounts. While this seems convenient and harmless enough, this behaviour drastically inflates CACs. Like ad fraud, this can skew the effectiveness of PPC campaigns. By utilising paid search results instead of organic links to navigate to the site, costs are driven up without contributing to new user acquisition.

In addition to the challenges posed by navigational traffic and ad fraud, the competitive landscape for first-time depositors intensifies the need for strategic bidding on Google search. Brands investing heavily in influencers or sponsorships of major sporting events to generate awareness and drive potential users to search for them. However, without securing top placements in paid search results, these prospective customers may be intercepted by competitors before reaching the organic search listings. This creates a critical juncture where the effectiveness of a brand campaign hinges on converting that intent-driven traffic into first-time depositors, ensuring marketing spend achieves its goal of meaningful user acquisition.

First-time depositors are a critical metric for sportsbooks, and this issue directly impacts the cost efficiency of acquiring them. High CACs make marketing budgets less effective, reducing overall ROI.

Shoring Up Your Defences

Before launching costly ad campaigns, sportsbooks should adopt a multi-faceted approach to address ad fraud. IVT typically goes unnoticed, so to prevent this sportsbooks should monitor and analyse their campaign traffic for any suspicious activity. It is possible to identify IVT by looking out for signs such as irregular spikes in traffic from unknown locations or high pageviews. Fraudulent traffic can then by highlighted and removed.

The advancement of technology has made ad fraud more difficult to identify, and legacy fraud tools fail to detect IVT. They don’t analyse traffic at the impression level or consider the context of the business advertising. Sportsbooks can leverage ad-verification platforms to compensate for this. This allows sportsbooks to analyse and report suspicious traffic in real-time. Fraud can then be blocked before it has a chance to harm budgets.

Sportsbooks can also deploy tactics to reduce the impact of navigational traffic on CACs. Methods include encouraging existing customers to use mobile apps or direct bookmarks to log into their accounts instead of paid search campaigns. This decreases their reliance on PPC campaigns for navigation and protects budgets.

Keeping Profits in Sportsbooks’ Hands

Influencer and celebrity campaigns have proven to be a popular and useful tool in reeling new users and profits. However, if sportsbooks don’t have the essential precautions in place, they risk losing these profits to advertising fraud.

To make the most of their advertising efforts, sportsbooks need to prioritise their traffic. Implementing sophisticated tools to analyse traffic and filter out fraud will allow sportsbooks to protect their interests and focus on driving future growth. This way, they can secure their position in an increasingly competitive landscape.

Written by: Chad Kinlay, Chief Marketing Officer, TrafficGuard

A driven, open-minded, creative senior marketer with a strong sense of dedication and commitment. With over 15 years of progressive international experience in marketing and communications management, Kinlay has a credible history of commercial success.

Asia

8Bit Creatives partners with NODWIN Gaming as the exclusive talent partner for DreamHack India

Published

2 weeks ago

November 7, 2024

George Miller

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

8Bit Creatives, India’s leading esports consulting and talent management agency, has announced its partnership with NODWIN Gaming, a leader in new-age youth entertainment, gaming, and esports, as the exclusive Talent Partner for DreamHack India 2024.

With this partnership, 8Bit Creatives will leverage its significant reach in the Indian gaming, esports and youth communities through its prominent and talented roster of creators. These creators will create content leading up to the festival and also host meet-and-greet sessions.

India’s biggest gaming festival, DreamHack India, is set to take place from 15th to 17th November at the Hitex Exhibition Centre in Hyderabad, marking its fifth edition. For half a decade, the India edition of the global festival has become one of the most anticipated events of the Indian gaming ecosystem. Bringing together a plethora of events, including esports tournaments, BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) events, cosplay competitions, music concerts, and stand-up comedy, DreamHack India is the celebration of gaming, esports, pop-culture, and entertainment.

8Bit Creatives, CEO and founder Animesh Agarwal said “DreamHack India is one of the most prominent events in the Indian gaming and esports calendar and we’re proud to be the exclusive talent partners for it. This is further recognition of 8Bit Creatives’ ability to meaningfully engage the gaming and youth audiences across the country. Our belief in working with the right creators who create experiences that resonate with the youth audiences distinguishes our offerings and we can’t wait to share what we have in store for DreamHack India 2024 with our audiences!”

This is not the first time that 8Bit Creatives will partner with DreamHack India. The organisation was also the talent partner for the event in 2022.

Commenting on the partnership, NODWIN Gaming, Co-founder and MD Akshat Rathee said “Our vision at NODWIN Gaming is to create unforgettable experiences for the youth, and DreamHack has proven to be the ultimate platform to realise that vision, bringing together gaming, entertainment, and community in an immersive celebration. We’re thrilled to have 8Bit Creatives as our exclusive Talent Partner for DreamHack India 2024. It’s especially exciting to welcome iconic creators like Mortal, who joined us in our very first edition, back for this landmark fifth year, alongside fan favourites like Snax, Kaashvi, Thug, and Payal. These creators bring a unique energy that connects deeply with our fans and elevates every moment. Their presence underscores our commitment to crafting electrifying experiences year after year, building on the momentum of events like BGMS and past DreamHack editions. Together with 8Bit and this powerhouse lineup, we’re setting the stage for an unforgettable event that will bring fans and creators closer than ever before!”

8Bit Creatives’s content and esports division S8UL became the only organisation in the year to win ‘Content Group of the Year’ award for the third consecutive year at the Esports Awards 2024. Additionally, they are the only organisation from India to ever win an Esports Award in any category. Earlier this year, gaming content creators from 8Bit Creatives including Naman Mathur, Payal Dhare and Animesh “Thug” Agarwal were invited for a meet and greet session with the honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.

The organisation has been at the forefront of India’s gaming and content ecosystem with its extensive range of services, including talent management, campaign curation and execution, brand activations and more.

The post 8Bit Creatives partners with NODWIN Gaming as the exclusive talent partner for DreamHack India appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.