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Nazara acquires majority in ad tech company Datawrkz
Nazara Technologies Limited an India based, diversified gaming and sports media company announced that it has entered an agreement to acquire a 55% stake in programmatic advertising and monetization company Datawrkz valuing the company up to INR 225 Cr (approx. USD 30M) linked to CY 22 EBITDA performance.
Nazara will acquire a 33% stake (INR 60 crores payable of which INR 35 crores is partly payable in cash and the balance consideration of INR 25 crores will be paid either in cash or swap of shares) in the first tranche by April 22. Nazara reserves an option to acquire an additional 22% in the second tranche that is expected to close in Q4 FY23.
Founded in 2013 by Senthil Govindan, IIM Ahmedabad alumnus, Datawrkz is a global advertising technology firm focused on accelerating user and revenue growth for clients through highly optimized digital advertising. With offices in the US, Singapore, and India, the firm functions as an Independent Trading Desk to power digital media strategy, planning and execution. Datawrkz’s self-serve product suite for advertisers – Vizibl, includes a Demand Side Platform as well as a Customer Data Platform. On the supply side, Datawrkz generates higher revenue for publishers through AdPrimus, its Supply Side product set that drives higher user engagement, mediates between demand sources, and enables audience segmentation. For the calendar year 2021, Datawrkz posted a combined revenue of INR 90.7 Cr (approx. USD 12.1M) and EBIDTA margin of 12% with around 70% of its revenue coming from the US as per CY 2021 unaudited financial statements.
Datawrkz tech offerings will enhance in-house capabilities of Nazara for optimizing its customer acquisition spends as well as enhance yields on ad monetization of its large consumer base. This ad revenue monetization is expected to assist many of the companies in the ‘Friends of Nazara’ network.
Further, there is an increasing symbiotic relationship between gaming companies and ad tech companies worldwide as a combination of the two will be value accretive for both businesses. With this transaction, Datawrkz aims to establish itself as a key player in gaming, covering both demand and supply side offerings for the gaming ecosystem in the US and India.
Said Nazara Technologies CEO Manish Agarwal, “We, at Nazara, are looking to build strong gaming ad tech offerings globally with the partnership with Datawrkz. We strongly believe that growth of gaming focused ad tech will be exponential in the coming decade across geographies with the growth of gamers and game publishers across freemium, web3.0 and skill based real money gaming.”
He further adds, “Ad tech companies with deep data processing capabilities and first party data ownership will emerge as winners in gaming focused ad tech and will help Datawrkz to create value for itself as well as for Nazara shareholders.”
Nitish Mittersain, Founder & Joint MD of Nazara Technologies said, “As always, it’s a great moment for us to welcome a new friend to our ‘Friends of Nazara’ network and I believe Senthil and the entire Datawrkz team will add great value to what we are building at Nazara over the next few years”
Datawrkz founder Senthil Govindan said, “We had started this company with a vision to disrupt the digital advertising space. Datawrkz was already on a fast track to achieve our objective with rapid growth and satisfied clients around the world. Through our partnership with Nazara, I see our pace accelerating further. While Datawrkz will be able to immediately bring our natural strengths to bear within the existing Nazara fold, this also gives both sides a tremendous opportunity to build global advertising and publisher monetization products with a sharp focus on the gaming vertical.”
Having acquired multiple companies over the past few years, Nazara has placed itself in a leading position in esports, interactive gaming and gamified early learning space with the ‘Friends of Nazara’ network. Nazara has acquired a majority stake in Nodwin Gaming Pvt. Ltd (57.05%); Next Wave Multimedia Pvt. Ltd. (52.38%), which operates World Cricket Championship (WCC), the largest mobile-based cricket simulation game, in addition to investment in Absolute Sports Private Limited, which operates Sportskeeda (63.90%) and Paper Boat Apps Private Limited (50.91%) – gamified early learning subscription app and OpenPlay – Skill Gaming (100%).

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Meridianbet Continues October’s Traditional Breast Cancer Prevention Campaign
Reading Time: 3 minutes
The gaming operator’s tech-enabled giving system reminds that corporate responsibility can scale without bureaucracy
When a woman in Montenegro called a clinic this October to book a free mammography through a gaming company’s prevention campaign, she didn’t fill out forms or wait for approval. She got an appointment date. The entire process took one phone call.
That simplicity is deliberate.
Meridianbet, operating under the publicly traded Golden Matrix Group (NASDAQ: GMGI), has spent four years building a charitable infrastructure that strips friction from giving.
The breast cancer screening program launched during Breast Cancer Awareness Month under the message “We Are With You” — offering 100 free examinations and 50 mammographies to women over 40 — demonstrates how the company deploys a system that now operates across 18 markets on three continents.
From Local Action to Global Infrastructure
The company completed 293 social responsibility actions in 2024, up from 257 in 2022. But the more revealing number is what happened inside those actions. Through a proprietary platform called Meridian Donate, Meridianbet customers can redirect portions of their activity into direct nonprofit funding. Last year, 43 campaigns ran through the system, reaching 212 organizations. That’s nearly double the 20 campaigns in 2023, when the platform covered eight markets.
The mechanism is straightforward. Customers scan a QR code or click a donation button embedded in the gaming interface. The platform routes funds to pre-vetted causes — maternity hospitals, literacy programs, basketball court renovations, environmental cleanups. No galas, no black-tie pledges, no months-long grant cycles.
Technology Meets Grassroots Execution
The company began testing the model in 2022 with 12 campaigns across six markets. Early projects included equipping maternity wards and funding youth sports programs. By 2024, the platform had expanded to 14 markets and supported work in healthcare, education, culture, and disaster relief.
One campaign tied donations to goals scored during the 2024 European Football Championship. Another linked contributions to Olympic medals won by athletes from countries where Meridianbet operates.
The Meridianbet foundation, established in 2020, now supports more than 40 healthcare facilities. In February 2025, it launched a book donation effort after an employee saw a social media post about underfunded libraries in Serbia. Within weeks, thousands of books had been collected and distributed across all 18 markets.
Employee participation is built into this structure as well. Staff identify needs in their regions, vet partner organizations, and often deliver aid themselves.
In 2024, employees logged 5,027 hours on community projects, compared to 3,084 hours in 2022. The company employs 39 people with disabilities, a figure that has grown modestly but consistently over three years.
Responsibility Embedded Into Business Operations
Meridianbet operates in a sector often scrutinized for social costs. The company has established internal standards that exceed local regulations, including mandatory responsible gambling training and customer-controlled betting limits.
It also participates in the UN Global Compact, aligning its programs with goals around education access, inequality reduction, and sustainable consumption.
The platform’s growth mirrors a broader shift in how corporations approach social responsibility. Traditional CSR often involves writing checks to established charities or hosting annual volunteer days. Meridian Donate embeds giving into the customer experience, creating a feedback loop where user engagement directly funds community projects. The model is scalable because it doesn’t require new infrastructure in each market — the technology travels, and local teams handle execution.
Scaling a Model Built on Simplicity
The company’s roadmap involves expanding health initiatives and environmental programs in 2025, with a focus on regions where it recently launched operations. It’s also exploring partnerships with larger NGOs to scale projects that have worked at the local level.
The breast cancer campaign continues through October and beyond. Appointments fill up as women call the clinic, no paperwork required. It’s a single program in one market, but it runs on the same infrastructure that moved aid to 212 organizations last year. That’s the model: build it once, deploy it everywhere, and let the numbers prove it works.
The post Meridianbet Continues October’s Traditional Breast Cancer Prevention Campaign appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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QTech Games goes live with CT Interactive
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QTech Games, the leading game aggregator for all emerging markets, has now gone live with CT Interactive. As a result, this successful integration grants its platform customers access to a distinctive catalogue of innovative slots, alongside classic and non-traditional content, which is capturing the hearts and minds of varied demographics.
CT Interactive now looks forward to enhanced distribution across assorted emerging markets from Asia to Africa, Europe and Latin America where growth is at its zenith.
CT Interactive is a leading content provider that has a portfolio of 200+ games, developed to appeal to different groups of players. The company is certified for 18 markets and is actively working on increasing this number.
QTech Games already provides a diverse wealth of games and unique features for players and operators, offering seamless integration with third-party content providers. The aggregator exerts a strong influence across Asia and other global emerging markets, such as LatAm, CIS and Africa.
Antonio Donov, Head of Business Development EMEA and Asia at CT Interactive, said: “This deal is helping us step into new markets in Asia, thus expanding our presence by reaching new clientele in different markets, which is our long-term goal. We are very proud that we were able to sign such an important deal with one of the leading game distributors worldwide.”
“It is a milestone for our business that will lead to a significant expansion, bringing benefits such as increased revenue, improved brand recognition, and access to new markets.”
“Our company is honoured to have the best quality games of CT Interactive, which have won prestigious awards, now live on our platform. This company has proved the standard of its products over the years, and we are sure that this move will be very beneficial for us,” added Philip Doftvik, CEO at QTech Games.
The post QTech Games goes live with CT Interactive appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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Feel the power of the moon in Midnight Queen from ICONIC21
Reading Time: 2 minutes
When the moon rises, the Queen awakens, and big wins can be triggered in the latest slot release from the in-demand iGaming content provider
Online casino operators can give their players the fright of their lives with Midnight Queen, the latest slot launch from in-demand iGaming content provider, ICONIC21.
Midnight Queen is a Vampire-themed slot that’s perfect for entertaining players during the Halloween season and beyond.
It brings vampire mystique to a 5×4 gameboard, where every Moon symbol feeds the hunger for even bigger wins. But this is a game where power doesn’t strike at random; it accumulates.
Player engagement is high thanks to the anticipation built into the game.
Glowing Frames lock onto the reels and wait. Each Moon that lands inside then pushes the Global Multiplier higher, building tension across a 10-spin cycle.
On the final spin, all the Glowing Frames transform into Wilds, delivering the bite – and big win potential – that players have been waiting for.
This combination of anticipation and frighteningly big wins – the game’s max win is 5,000x – allows operators to draw players in and then deliver the thrills (and chills) they are seeking.
As with all ICONIC21’s online slot games, Midnight Queen is available in both real money and sweepstakes formats.
Edvardas Sadosvkis, CPO at ICONIC21, said: “Spooky season is very much upon us, and in Midnight Queen, operators have a slot game they can use to frighten players through spine-tingling gameplay and big win potential.
“The best thing about Midnight Queen is that the theme is enjoyed long after Halloween has ended, and the team has done a great job of producing a gameplay experience that draws players in, builds anticipation and then has the potential to deliver the big wins they are seeking.
“This is a great addition to our portfolio, and we look forward to seeing our operators add it to their lobbies and to benefit from the repeat play, high engagement and consistent revenue growth that Midnight Queen provides.”
The post Feel the power of the moon in Midnight Queen from ICONIC21 appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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