AZB & Partners, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and Cooley have counselled parties involved in the new esports joint venture RISE, with the transaction value remaining confidential.
CAM advised RISE Worldwide, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries, on its strategic partnership with BLAST Esports, which is a wholly owned unit of Denmark-based BLAST ApS.
Senior partner L Viswanathan led the CAM team, with partners Arun Prabhu, Aarushi Jain and Swati Sharma. Principal associates Pooja Kapadia and Kush Wadehra, consultant Nidhi Jhawar, as well as associates Shobhit Dave, Kanav Khanna and Udisha Surana supported the transaction team.
AZB & Partners assisted on India law matters for BLAST Esports and Cooley acted as international transaction counsel.
As of 2024, Reliance Industries is 含羞草社区 largest private sector company with consolidated revenue of USD233.06 billion. Its diverse portfolio spans energy, petrochemicals, renewables, retail and digital services. BLAST works with some of the biggest game publishers such as Epic Games, Valve, Riot Games, KRAFTON and Ubisoft to create leading global esports properties.
The partnership will culminate in the new joint venture RISE, merging BLAST’s expertise in esports media production, publisher relationships and proprietary IPs with the technological capabilities, distribution network and local partnerships of Jio, Reliance’s digital services provider.
The JV will soon operate across the entire esports value chain, offering services to publishers and sponsors, comprehensive tournament management, targeted marketing, and end-to-end production and broadcasting.
India, home to more than 600 million gamers (18% of the global base), is the world’s fastest-growing gaming market, projected to reach USD9.2 billion by 2029, especially now with government recognition of esports as part of the “multi-sports event” category.
