Mobile gaming firm Nazara partners Virat Kohli & Rohit Sharma for cricket-based game series

Tapping on cricketers global brand value, mobile gaming firm Nazara Technologies has partnered with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to create a cricket-based game series.

According to an Economic Times report, the gaming publisher is planning to launch 'Virat Super Cricket' and 'Stick Cricket Virat Rohit' next month. The games will be launched in partnership with Sydney-based mobile game developer Stick Sports.

With the latest partnership, the 16-year-old Mumbai-based gaming publisher, Nazara is targeting $100 million in revenues by 2018 using in-app purchases and ad-based revenues. Last year, the firm achieved Rs 220 crore.

Manish Agarwal, CEO of Nazara Technologies said, “The mobile gaming sports vertical is dominated by soccer, baseball and football globally. But for India, cricket is the focus area and so we are looking at cricket as a growth opportunity globally. That could be a $100 million opportunity in terms of revenues.”

The mobile gaming firm is signing a deal with, the now Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli for two years in the form of a revenue sharing partnership. The company will use cricketers wide social connect for marketing and popularising the games.

Nazara is also planning to collaborate with the brands that Kohli endorses and launch a series of merchandise to enhance user engagement. Kohli is currently associated with 17 brands.