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Bag groupDigital Entertainment Company said it has been associated with the ABU Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) to boost the growth of games, media and entertainment in Abu Dhabi.
The five -year agreement will see the expansion of Adio Support Nip Group in the region. According to the agreement, Adio will support the company with access to financial and non -financial growth opportunities valued by up to $ 40 million for a period of four years. The news was announced last week and I just interviewed Hicham Chahine, Nip Group co-zoo, to talk about the details.
The NIP group will establish its global headquarters in Abu Dhabi and will contribute to local employment in the electronic sports and games sector. The company will also increase its capacity in key business verticals in the region, including electronic sports operations, creative studies and games publication, along with events and talent management.
Through the Association, Nip Group will work directly with Adio to advise on its electronic games and sports strategy, taking advantage of Abu Dhabi’s location and resources to build a prosperous local games ecosystem and offer innovative solutions of digital entertainment throughout the entire world. Nip Group raised $ 20.5 million In an initial public offer in Nasdaq in July 2024. He has made some acquisition agreements since then. Mario Ho is co-zo and president of Nip Group.
He Badra Al-Olas, General Director of Adio, satire in Matelaada, “The Adio Association with Nip Group reflects our shared ambition to lead in innovative industries of the future at the forefront of entertainment and technology. The welcome to Nip Group to Abu Dhabi represents an important addition to this effort, and we hope to collaborate to guarantee a dynamic future for the Electronic and Sports Industries of Abu Dhabi. “
The ABU Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) is the government vehicle responsible for accelerating the growth of Abu Dhabi and allow the economic transformation of the Emirate, so it depends less on physical resources and can adapt to the digital world.
Through the association, Nip Group will support the broader ecosystem of Abu Dhabi, which will help the company expand its business in the Middle East already worldwide.
Building a large company
Ninjas in Pajamas (often abbreviated for NIP and NIP) is perhaps the oldest electronic sports brand, since it was the name of a Swedish eSports organization founded in Stockholm in 2000. The team competed in counterproduction until its dissolution in 2007. In 2012, the team returned with a counter-structure now well recognized: the global offensive squad.
“I joined and acquired it 2016 and that was when we started climbing it,” he said. “About 25 years ago, the brand was created, but when you consider it as a company, it started in 2106.
Nip Group formed in 2023 in a fusion of the Ninjas Electronic Sports Organization in Pajamas and the Esv5 Digital Sports Group, which includes the Mobile Electronic Sports Firm being gaming. Nip Group currently has operations in Sweden, China, Abu Dhabi and Brazil, and their electronic sports lists participate in multiple games of games in the world’s largest events. In 2024, the company became public.
“The company today has seven offices worldwide. Stockholm Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Hong Kong, Sao Paulo, and we are consolidating the global headquarters in Abu Dhabi, ”said Chahine.
Around 400 people work in the company now, compared to four in 2016. And with $ 83 million in revenues in 2024, Chahine said that Nip Group is one of the world’s largest electronic sports companies in terms of income. He lost money, but the losses in 2024 were 60% lower than in 2023, he said.
“That has been a little trip,” Chahine said.
ESports is approximately 25% of the business, and the company addresses approximately 600 million people in the world who are fanatics of electronic sports. It also has a talent management agency for 36,000 live broadcasts and content creators. And Opera League of Legends and Honor of Kings Evisports Teams in China. And he has his own events in Arenas in places like Shenzhen and Wuhan. And now he is also publishing games.
The competition is abundant. NIP Group competes with electronic sports teams, talent management companies for creators, hotels, events production such as ESLs and game editors as well.
“We have vertical and each one has different types of companions,” he said. “The closest partner he can find for us is Garena,” the Singapore company that Free Fire has.
Expanding in Abu Dhabi
In Abu Dhabi, he hopes to create a center with approximately 200 to 250 people, many of them new hiring. Abu Dhabi is attracting companies with money to create more jobs in the future in the digital field, and video games are a priority industry in that regard. Beam Ventures recently raised $ 150 million to invest in new companies that settled in Abu Dhabi. Those who agree to take money and incentives must create jobs in the local ecosystem and have to comply with the KPI, Chahine said.
Chahine thought long before committing to Abu Dhabi. He moved to the city in the United Arab Emirates a year ago to create a regional headquarters. He reminded him, who speaks and writes Arabic, of his native country of Lebanon, since there are many Lebanese who live there. The Middle East is also an electronic sports market and fast -growing games. And he liked how he had a central time zone and no travel visa requirement.
“The Middle East is the next border for the growth of electronic sports and the growth of the game,” he said. “You see it with Saudi Arabia to lead the way, but Abu Dhabi and Eau have been extremely active. It is extremely efficient to operate outside this location. Our little agreement we had with the Department of Culture and Tourism turned out to be this complete global headquarters. ”
This year, Chahine said the company is trying to reach the $ 100 million income brand and its objective is to be profitable. The company has moved to interesting vertical games such as the hotel business. It will open its first hotel in 2025 in an attempt to create a place for players to stay.
He pointed out that the games of games that began in Asia are a kind of “dying concept.” The places are loud, the team is old and now the world has something like 30,000 hotels focused on games that are a better way of playing. Each room has five beds, five computers, room service and games to play.
Chahine said that Abu Dhabi established his game ambitions five years ago, before Saudi Arabia did it, and the city has been growing its local ecosystem in a more base manner.
“They have focused a lot on the development of games and organically bringing smaller games developers and building them from here with many support structures,” he said. “This is one of the first large -scale electronic sports offers they have made.”
He pointed out that Abu Dhabi and other places in the Middle East have a high density of young people, with 70% of them under 30 or 35 years. And that population has grown with games as a main form of entertainment.
“The commitment is very big here,” he said. “It is what people want to commit, consume, watch tomorrow.”
As for the OPI, he said that the company maintained the low amount at $ 20.5 million and that the reason why they became public was more to raise the public profile of the company and demonstrate that electronic sports can be profitable and sustainable.
“We have many investments and resources in this. But again, we approach profitability, which means that all that we have received this capital and most is used for future growth initiatives, not to cover capital burns. “
The company appears in the USA. In Nasdaq, but it is not yet active in the US
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