(Yicai) July 29 -- Mario Ho, a son of the late Macao casino tycoon Stanley Ho, has become the youngest founder of a Nasdaq-listed Asian company after taking his e-sports firm NIP Group public in New York.

Going public in the United States was a “dream come true,” Ho, chairman and co-chief executive officer, said at the bell-ringing ceremony at Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square on July 26, which turned NIP [NASDAQ: NIPG] into the first listed Chinese e-sports company.

Stockholm-based NIP raised USD20.3 million from the sale of 2.25 million American depository shares priced at USD9 apiece. The stock closed at USD9.02 on its first trading day, giving it a market value of about USD506 million.

Ho, 29, acquired Chinese e-sports club eStar in 2020 and Swedish peer Ninjas in Pyjamas last year, and merged the pair to form NIP with his business partner Hicham Chahine. “Our team has grown into becoming the representation of the global e-sports industry,” he said at its market debut.

The proceeds of the initial public offering will be used for potential strategic acquisitions and investment opportunities, marketing purposes, and to expand the presence of the firm’s e-sports team, talent management, and event production capabilities, according to its prospectus.

Ho is the company’s largest shareholder with a 13.6 percent stake, followed by co-CEO Chahine at 11.9 percent.

NIP’s net loss more than doubled to USD13.3 million last year, mainly because of higher operational costs at the e-sports club and increasing marketing expenses, the prospectus showed. Revenue soared 27 percent to USD83.7 million.

The e-sports industry does not yet have a clear profit model, gaming sector analyst Zhang Shule told Yicai. In terms of revenue sharing from events, e-sports clubs cannot compete with upstream game publishers and organizers, Zhang noted, adding that they can only expand revenues through downstream endeavours such as merchandise and e-sports-themed hotels.

On July 23, the International Olympic Committee announced during its 142nd session in Paris that Saudi Arabia will hold the inaugural Olympic E-sports Games next year. The first Electronic Sports World Cup is taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The e-sports industry’s revenues in China rose 4.4 percent to CNY12 billion (USD 1.7 billion) last year, ending a two-year decline, according to a report released by the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association on July 26. The number of e-sports users inched up 0.5 percent to 490 million.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione