In an exchange filing, Nazara Technologies said, “Sportskeeda Inc, wholly owned subsidiary of Absolute Sports (Sportskeeda), material subsidiary of the company, has signed definitive agreements for the acquisition of 73.27% of the capital stocks of Pro Football Network LLC, a Connecticut limited liability company, at a consideration of $1.817 million, to be paid in cash.”

Pro Football Network LLC is a US Sports Digital Media Publisher focusing on publishing content related to the National Football League in the United States. It is a comprehensive sports media company that focuses on the NFL, fantasy football, NFL Draft and college football. It claims to have an average of over 5 million monthly active users (MAUs). In the calendar year 2022, the firm clocked revenues of $2.1 million (around Rs 17.5 crore).

Absolute Sports via its flagship brand sportskeeda.com is a global sports media platform that covers the world's biggest sports and esports subjects and serves more than 100 million fans every month. In 2019, Nazara picked up a majority stake in Absolute Sports.

The company said that this marks the first acquisition for Absolute Sports in the US Sports Media market as it looks to bolster its existing user base and offerings in the US. In-depth coverage of the NFL will add value to Absolute Sports' existing portfolio of sports media brands, enabling extended coverage from the US, it added.

The acquisition is proposed by way of combination of both primary infusion in preferred stocks and secondary purchase of common stock from its existing stockholders and subsequent exchange of such common stock into preferred stock, which in aggregate represent up to 73.27% of the capital stock. The deal is expected to close on 10 April 2023.

Further, Sportskeeda Inc, reserves an option to acquire up to 10% and up to 8% additional stock of the Pro Football Network LLC in CY 2024 and CY 2025 respectively, Nazara Technologies stated in the press release.

The gaming and sports media company said that the proposed investment is part of Sportskeeda growth strategy to strengthen the strategic position and presence of Sportskeeda in US digital sports media market. The proposed acquisition will help Sportskeeda in increasing its revenues in digital media space.

The acquisition is being funded out of internal cash reserves of Sportskeeda which has been advanced as loan to its wholly owned subsidiary ‘Sportskeeda Inc'.

Ajay Pratap Singh, CEO of Absolute Sports, said, “Our flagship brand, Sportskeeda, has achieved phenomenal success, with an increase from 15 million MAUs in 2019 to over 76 million in 2023, all while maintaining highly profitable operations. We look forward to pursuing multiple acquisitions in the near future to further strengthen our position in the sports media landscape."

Nitish Mittersain, CEO and Joint MD of Nazara Technologies, said, “The PFN acquisition kickstarts an inorganic growth strategy in addition to the rapid organic growth in revenues and profitability that the company has been delivering. Looking forward to the next set of exciting products and content the team will bring to sports fans all over the world.”

Nazara Technologies is a diversified gaming & sports media platform with presence in India and across emerging & developed global markets such as Africa and North America. It has offerings across the interactive gaming, eSports, ad-tech and gamified early learning ecosystems including World Cricket Championship (WCC) and CarromClash in mobile games, Kiddopia in gamified early learning, Nodwin, PublishMe and Sportskeeda in eSports and eSports media, OpenPlay, Halaplay and Qunami in skill-based, fantasy and trivia games, and Datawrkz in digital ad-tech.

The company's consolidated net profit jumped 75.73% to Rs 18.1 crore in Q3 FY23 from Rs 10.3 crore recorded in Q3 FY22. Revenue from operations soared 69.43% year on year (YoY) to Rs 314.80 crore in the quarter ended 31 December 2022.