“BGMI will become the second largest sport in the country after Indian cricket” - Nimish Raut, Head of Esports and Special Projects, NODWIN Gaming.

A day after the IPL Media Rights Auction for 2022 had concluded, I caught up with Nimish Raut about a super secret esports tournament announcement that Nodwin Gaming was working on. Raut is the global head of esports partnerships and special projects for NODWIN, and as we made our way to his home for the interview, he promised that this tournament would be a game changer for the Indian esports landscape. The cynic in me scoffed at this - almost every esports tournament organizer in India claims to have something 'groundbreaking' in store for fans.

But a few minutes into the interview, I realized that I had to eat my words - Raut was not exaggerating. Nodwin Gaming has announced the BGMI Master Series with a prize pool of INR 1.5 Crore ($192.14K USD) which will be taken to the masses via Star Sports on television. Without further ado, here’s the transcript of our conversation. If you prefer to listen / watch, you can check out the full video interview here.

Q. Nimish this is your crown jewel in the world of esports thus far. Can you tell us what it is you’re working on and why it’s such a big deal?

This has been three or four months in the making now. We are working on the BGMI Master Series, you must have already seen the announcement that Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) esports is going to be on television for the first time. This goes way back to when I came back to India and joined Fnatic. I had a vision to take esports to television the right way, and Akshat (Nodwin Gaming’s Managing Director) believed in the idea with me.

When we got the opportunity to make it happen, we managed to get the right partners, the right set up and the right format - it all kind of fell in place in the last few months. In addition to the television broadcast via Star Sports, this tournament is also going to have massive digital distribution thanks to our partners Glance and Loco. We also have some really credible partners on board. This is going to be shown as a professional sport and a professional tournament with a decent media value to it. So yeah, fingers crossed! Next season when we go back into the market more people are going to want to be a part of this

Q. Any nervousness about taking esports to TV?

You know, this project is like my baby. I’ve always envisioned that this should happen and then when things actually fall into place, you obviously get nervous about how it’s going to be right? The first question was - “will I actually get someone to believe that this should be on TV?”. Once we got that, the next question was “is this actually going to work?”. I do believe it’s going to work and I think it already has a massive fan following. The entire community takes pride in the fact that this is a sport, and it will be extremely important that every single stakeholder within the industry (gamers or non gamers), just believe that esports is a sport, and we all go back and watch it on the home of sports which is Star Sports Network.

I want people to enjoy the broadcast with their parents and their family members, to show them what esports is all about and what skills are required when a player makes rotations or tries to use grenades or the M16. People need to understand what really goes behind the game right? It’s not just a bunch of kids playing in a dark room anymore.

So yeah, to answer your question, I am nervous! But when it goes live on the 24th I’m going to cry a little bit and be happy about it but I’m certain that Akshat and I will be very proud of it. The rest of the Nodwin Gaming team has worked very hard on this one as well so this could be a very proud moment for us.

Q. There have been previous attempts to put esports on Indian television. UCypher was among the most recent ones. What’s different about this particular tournament?

There are multiple things that are different. Some of the previous attempts were way ahead of their time. I think we have come to a point where people realize that live sport is watched best on television. Yes, digital is great and has definitely boomed over the last few years, but the experience of live sport on television is something that cannot be compromised.

In India, this is always going to be an extremely important factor. Just look at what’s happened with the media rights for the cricket IP just a few days ago. It proved that there is a lot of value that people ascribe to television even today. I believe in that as well. Television has a great role to play in the growth of esports in India.

Remember that any live sport needs to have linear television to actually reach out to the masses. The second thing that’s different is both the Star sales team and Nodwin Gaming’s internal sales team have worked closely with various media partners to actually turn this into a viable ROI positive product. Every single asset has been converted into a manner that makes sense for television. I think that’s what makes it unique.

Q. Nimish, we are filming this just a day after the IPL media rights auctions have happened. Your media rights packaging looks a lot like that of traditional sports. Talk us through the structural approach that you took for this event. How did you go about convincing people that they should be paying for various buckets of media rights?

This came about through years of learning. When I came back to India, there was a lot of buzz around esports, especially BGMI. Everytime we went to a brand, they loved the idea and the numbers around the game, but nobody actually put all of that together into a package that made sense.

I mean, we’ve always had the downloads, the monthly active users and the daily active users, we have a decent viewership. But how do you now speak the same kind of media language that brands are used to talking, or speak with media agencies to actually make it happen? So we literally broke down the product into various components like broadcast inventory, segment inventory and actually created ad inventory within the pre, post and live game itself. Then we put our heads together to answer questions like what is the kind of visibility that a title sponsor would get versus an associate sponsor. We put seconds to it and a value to those seconds, got it authenticated by our media partners and came up with a valuation that we wanted to take to market.

But then some of our partners actually believed in it and said “yeah, we will spend money with you.” For the people that didn’t spend with us, we hope that they will see the value and come back next season.

Q. How has the response been from teams and participants in the BGMI Master Series? Did you face resistance or have they been welcoming to the idea?

Look, I know most of the teams and players personally. Everyone knows that Nodwin, Akshat and I always want to give back to the community. It’s extremely important for us that the teams make money. For me it was very clear. Taking this to television not only opens doors up for Nodwin Gaming and its partners, but also for teams to actually value themselves appropriately.

Today, we are seeing teams are extremely excited about the fact that they are going on television and the fact that they can now value and sell their front of jersey sponsorship, their shoulder placements and their back of jersey placements. Since this is going on TV now, teams learned that for the first time, there was truly a demand for this in the market. It’s something that everyone is very proud of. Teams don’t usually make a lot of money in esports and with this, they have realized that there is business to be done.

My attempt has always been to find avenues for them to make money and so the teams seem very excited. Some of them know that we have actually taken the effort to manufacture the jerseys ourselves. We made sure that everyone looks uniform and that they look great on stage. We also want brands to evaluate individual team sponsorships just like they evaluate any other gaming partnerships right now.

Q. When I was a kid and I would watch a tournament on TV or online, I’d always had dreams of playing there myself. Did you ever consider a zero to hero story, or a path for underdogs through open qualifiers in the BGMI Master Series?

I think people need to understand that everyone has a role to play right? As Nodwin we definitely have a role to play in esports or the development of underdogs and grassroots programs. But this is not that platform. This is the BGMI Master Series. It’s about the heroes who are already legends in their own right. It’s about coming together and showcasing what they’re capable of.

Does that mean that we are not open to the idea of an open qualifier? Of course not, for all you know in season 2 we might open up a door for an underdog team. There are enough and more tournaments where underdogs can shine and if this becomes really really big, I don’t see a reason why teams will not want to pick up younger players to be a part of this tournament.

We might even create a transfer window. Remember that this is just step one. There are ten steps for this to become extremely big. I can’t tell you all ten of them, but I’ve taken step number one right now. And I can promise you that by the time I have done the tenth step, BGMI will become the second largest sport in the country after Indian cricket. This is what I believe in, this is what Akshat believes in, and this is what NODWIN believes in. That’s the dream and it’s what we are going after. And it’s what I want all the community members to understand and support me for.

Q. Talk to me about the studio that you’re setting up for this event. I’ve heard some very nice things about it. What can you share? Will there be a live audience?

Unfortunately, this time around, there will be no live audience because we still want to make sure that we are within the COVID protocols and within a bubble. We just want to get it right this time around. But the studio is great! Again, thanks to Gautam and Akshat for believing in the idea of having a studio. They knew that I am experienced enough to build something like this because I’ve done this in the past with Riot Games. It’s 20K square feet with the potential to extend by another 20K square feet. When was the last time you heard somebody say that they have 40K square feet dedicated only for esports? Only Nodwin could do something like this. I don’t see anybody else believing in esports the way we do.

It has an amazing entrance now that it’s almost ready. It’s got a mural that is designed by me, inspired by some of the best video game characters in the esports world. Kind of like my tattooed hand, but in a 25 feet tall studio and almost 10K square feet of graffiti. It looks kickass. Inside the studio we have invested money in a Production control room, an LED setup, a player lounge and possibly in the future a permanent stage as well.

We want to do one big LAN every month. The idea is that NODWIN will produce 12 to 15 LANs a year. For any other sport, for example when you want to play a cricket game, what do you do if you’re the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) today? You have like what, 40 stadiums to choose from? Indian esports doesn’t even have one stadium. I’m not saying that this studio we’re building is a stadium but it’s definitely a start. Today it’s a studio, tomorrow it could be a stadium! We don’t need a cricket stadium to do esports events. We build our own stadiums.

Q. Any parting words as we wrap up this conversation?

Oh just one request to everyone in the community. This has taken a lot for all of us to build together, including the players, NODWIN and all other stakeholders. So on 24th June, 8 pm IST, be sure to tune in to Star Sports on your television. We’re going to watch BGMI live on television for the first time. Please become a part of history. Let’s show the world that India loves BGMI and make it the biggest sport after India cricket.