Ajay Pratap Singh has been promoted as the chief executive officer (CEO) of the sports media platform Sportskeeda in what appears to be a significant reorganization at the company owned by Nazara Technologies.
With effect from November 16, Porush Jain, the director and CEO of Sportskeeda’s parent business Absolute Sports, resigned from his position. The promotion coincided with his resignation, and Jain will serve as team leader and remain a shareholder in the business during the transition period.
Ajay Pratap Singh joined Sportskeeda as Head of Marketing in 2019 and was promoted to the chief operating officer (COO) in 2020.
On being appointed as CEO of the company, Ajay said, “It was a great learning experience working alongside Porush. Being the brand’s founder, he was instrumental in taking Sportskeeda to where it is today. With his continued guidance as a mentor to the team and me, we hope to take Sportskeeda to even greater heights.”
Sportskeeda reported that under Singh’s direction, its user base increased by 2.5 times and its revenue increased by five times. For H1-FY23, the platform brought in Rs 58.1 crore in revenue, substantially doubling its H1-FY22 revenue of Rs 30.8 crore. EBITDA increased from Rs 10.2 crore to Rs 17.4 crore for the first half of FY23.
This hiring also coincides with a recent change in management at Nazara Technologies, where founder Nitish Mittersain will undertake the position of CEO on December 1 in place of outgoing CEO Manish Agarwal, who intends to retire after serving in that position for seven and a half years.
Nazara Technologies acquired Sportskeeda’s majority ownership for Rs 44 crore in 2019.
Nazara CEO Nitish Mittersain said, “Sportskeeda continues to grow very rapidly across its core markets of the US and India, having doubled its revenue every year for the last three years. I am sure it will continue to make even greater strides under Ajay’s able leadership. The market for sports content is deep and offers huge growth opportunities in the coming years.”
Additionally, the media start-up disclosed that Sudhir Kamath, Nazara’s COO, had been appointed to the board of Absolute Sports as a non-executive director.
On the same day that the reshuffle of positions took place, Nazara finished acquiring a further 5.71% stock holding in Sportskeeda. As a result, the gaming unicorn’s overall ownership interest in the esports venue rose from 65% to 70.71% on a fully diluted basis.
In their regulatory filing on 16 November, Nazara Technologies said, “we wish to inform you that the Company has completed the acquisition of 12,323 equity shares of INR 1 each in Absolute Sports for a total aggregate consideration amount of INR 19.99 crore on November 15, 2022.”