E-sports firm co-founded by casino legend Stanley Ho’s son closes flat on Nasdaq debut

NIP Group, the esports company co-founded by Mario Ho, son of the late legendary Macau casino magnate Stanley Ho, ended its first day of U.S. trading near zero on Friday, giving it a market capitalization of about $506 million.

Shares of Stockholm-based NIP Group pared early gains to close at $9.02 on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange on Friday, little changed from its initial public offering price of $9. The company raised more than $20 million in its IPO, selling 2.25 million shares at the low end of its price range.

According to the prospectus, NIP Group will use the IPO proceeds for potential acquisitions, marketing activities to grow its fan base and expand its esports teams to Southeast Asia, North America, the Middle East, Japan and South Korea.

NIP Group’s listing comes against the backdrop of the inaugural Esports World Cup, which kicked off in Saudi Arabia earlier this month. More than 1,500 professional gamers, including those from NIP Group, gathered in the capital Riyadh to compete for a share of a record-breaking prize pool of more than $60 million. The two-month tournament provided a much-needed boost to the struggling esports industry, which has seen companies struggle to make a profit and face layoffs as the buzz around professional gaming competitions has faded.

Founded in 2021 and based in Sweden, the birthplace of popular games such as Minecraft AND Candy Crush—NIP Group is an esports company with a team of 125 professional gamers from China, Europe, and Brazil. The company operates two esports teams: the mobile-focused EStar Gaming in China and the console and PC-focused Ninjas in Pyjamas in Sweden. They compete in popular titles such as Counter Strike Global Offensive, Honor of Kings AND League of LegendsAccording to the prospectus, in 2023, EStar Gaming won $10.9 million in prize money from 60 tournaments, while Ninjas in Pyjamas earned $8.2 million from 57 competitions.

NIP Group has attracted investors including Felix Granander, son of the late Swedish media and telecommunications tycoon Jan Stenbeck, the Wuhan city government, Susquehanna International Group owned by American billionaire Jeff Yass, ZhenFund owned by Anna Fang, Forbes editor Midas Lister, and Hong Kong pop singer Jackson Wang.

NIP Group’s revenue in 2023 rose 27% to $83.7 million from a year earlier, although its net loss widened to $13.3 million from $6.2 million in the same period. The company generates most of its revenue from talent management services, which includes fees for advertising, sponsorships and live streaming generated by its 36,000 signed “internet entertainers,” a mix of esports athletes and influencers. NIP Group also generates revenue from its esports teams, which includes tournament prizes, and from producing esports events.

NIP Group attributes its steady revenue growth to an increase in sponsorship, advertising and intellectual property licensing fees for items such as virtual goods. In March, the company struck a partnership with China’s BYD, the world’s largest electric vehicle company by sales. It has since secured sponsorship deals with brands including Razer, Red Bull and Samsung.

In its prospectus, NIP Group said it intends to diversify its revenue streams by strengthening its esports education and esports hotel businesses, among other things. The company has provided esports training to more than 12 educational institutions in China, with a goal of expanding to 50 institutions in the country by 2025. In the meantime, it has entered into a joint venture with an undisclosed hotel chain operator in China to develop and operate hotels that provide esports facilities, such as specialized gaming computers.

Mario Ho is the president and co-CEO of NIP Group, overseeing the company’s Asian business. Previously, Ho was the chief marketing officer of iDreamsky Technology Holdings, a Tencent-backed mobile game publisher.

Ho, a finance graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, entered the gaming world in 2018 when he founded the e-sports club Victory 5, one of the predecessors of NIP Group, in Shenzhen at the age of 23. Last year, he served as a coach at Macau Honor of Kings at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, where two professional NIP players represented China and helped them win the gold medal in esports.

Ho, who also serves as chairman of the Macau Esports Federation, is the son of Stanley Ho, the patriarch of Asia’s largest gaming empire, who died in 2020 at the age of 98.

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