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Yangtze Business Daily News● Yangtze Business Daily reporter Xu Jingli

Recently, NIP Group, an e-sports company headed by "son of the gambling king" He Youjun, officially rang the bell on the Nasdaq in the United States with the stock code "NIPG". Based on the latest stock price, its market value is about US$500 million.

This means that the "first Chinese e-sports stock" has officially been born. At the same time, He Youjun has become the youngest founder of a Nasdaq-listed company in Asia.

Xingjing Weiwu Group focuses on e-sports club business and is headquartered in Wuhan Optics Valley. Optics Valley is accelerating the construction of "China's e-sports capital". The Optics Valley International E-sports Center project, located in the central city of Wuhan East Lake High-tech Zone, is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. After the completion of the project, it will organize and host no less than 100 high-level professional e-sports events each year, incubate no less than 100 e-sports cultural enterprises, drive the employment of 10,000 industry talents, and achieve a comprehensive annual income of 10 billion yuan.

The birth of “China’s first e-sports stock”

According to the information, Xingjing Weiwu Group is a global integrated digital sports group with e-sports club business as its core, and diversified businesses such as e-sports events and digital sports talent brokerage are developing in parallel. At present, the group owns club brands eStar and NIP, as well as MAG Red Carp Culture, Dawei Xianglong, eStar Entertainment and other diversified businesses, with business tentacles reaching countries and regions such as Europe and South America.

In 2017, V5 e-sports club was born in the hands of He Youjun. The following year, the club formed a League of Legends team and won a place in the LPL. Although the team's performance was average, the amount of money it received in the A round of financing was as high as 100 million yuan. At the end of 2020, the KPL team eStar, founded by former Warcraft player Sun Liwei, announced a merger with V5 to jointly establish the Star Competition Weiwu Group. After the merger, the group's headquarters was settled in Wuhan East Lake High-tech Zone, with He Youjun as chairman and Sun Liwei as co-CEO. In 2023, Star Competition Weiwu Group announced its merger with the NIP team. At this point, a comprehensive international e-sports group spanning China, the United States, and Europe, including terminal and mobile game e-sports events, has been formed. In mid-June of this year, Star Competition Weiwu Group submitted a prospectus to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, taking the first step towards listing.

The prospectus shows that He Youjun holds 14.2% of the shares of Star Esports Weiwu Group, making him the largest shareholder and serving as the group's CEO; NIP club owner and group co-CEO Hicham Chahine holds 12.4% of the shares through a holding company, making him the second largest shareholder; eStar team founder Sun Liwei holds 8.7% of the group's shares; Wuhan Tourism and Sports Group holds 8.5% of the shares through Yuyun Enterprise Management Partnership (Limited Partnership).

In terms of performance, the prospectus shows that Xingjing Weiwu Group's operating income in 2023 will be US$83.67 million, a 27% increase from US$65.8 million in the same period last year; gross profit is US$7.2 million, compared with US$3.74 million in the same period last year. In this IPO, Xingjing Weiwu Group sold a total of 2.25 million ADS (American Depositary Shares) at an issue price of US$9/ADS, with a total fundraising scale of US$20.25 million (approximately RMB 147 million).

StarEsports Weiwu Group's listing on NASDAQ and becoming the "first Chinese e-sports stock" will be a practice for China's e-sports industry to seek global development.

Optics Valley adds new listed companies

E-sports is entering the vision of more and more people and has been supported and recognized by authoritative organizations at home and abroad. On July 23, the International Olympic Committee formally passed a proposal at its 142nd plenary session in Paris, France, deciding to hold the first Olympic E-sports Games in Saudi Arabia in 2025, which also marks the official entry of e-sports into the "Olympic" stage.

By the end of 2023, the net income of StarEsports Group's e-sports club operations, talent brokerage, and event activities accounted for 25.9%, 62.9%, and 11.2%, respectively. Diversified sources of income ensure sustainable profitability. In addition, StarEsports Group is actively exploring opportunities in e-sports education and training, community marketing, e-sports complexes, and IP licensing. The company is creating a unique "e-sports +" business model, extending talent brokerage, event activities, advertising, and other innovative businesses through e-sports club business. In the future, with the advancement of technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and Web3.0, e-sports will have a more far-reaching impact on the economic, cultural, and social levels.

Wuhan East Lake Hi-Tech Zone, where Xingjing Weiwu Group's headquarters is located, is also a hotbed for capital. Optics Valley has been committed to promoting the development and innovation of high-tech industries. By building a multi-level fund group, Optics Valley has provided strong support for technological innovation and industrial innovation. The number and quality of listed companies in Optics Valley have shown a steady growth trend, and many of them have become industry leaders.

At present, the total number of listed companies in Optics Valley at home and abroad has reached 66, and the number of listed companies exceeds 60% of Wuhan City and accounts for about 1/3 of Hubei Province. The total amount of capital market refinancing in the first half of 2024 is nearly 15 billion yuan. Optics Valley has launched a gold seed cultivation project for listing, and 159 gold seed companies have been added to the database. The Wuhan Metropolitan Area Capital Market Service Base was built, and support was provided in investment and financing docking, listing training, policy docking and other aspects. At the same time, the total scale of Wuhan New City Science and Technology Innovation Fund has reached 10 billion yuan, which is specifically used to support the financing of technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises in the East Lake High-tech Zone.

In a previous interview, He Youjun said that the main reason the company chose Wuhan as its location is that eStar’s home base and largest institutional investor are in Wuhan. In addition, Wuhan is one of the cities with the largest number of college students in Asia and has a wide group of college e-sports enthusiasts.

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