After the blockbuster initial public offering (IPO) of Indian sports media and gaming firm Nazara Technologies, its shares made a trading debut at INR 1,971, up by 79 per cent from its issue price of INR 1,101 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on  March 30.  

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), Nazara’s shares opened even higher at INR 1,990, which is 80.74 per cent more than the issue price.

The INR 583 crore IPO of the Mumbai-based company, which took place from March 17 to 19, was a hot property among investors, who oversubscribed it 175 times.

High net-worth individuals (HNIs) were the most interested in the stocks of the first gaming company to be traded publicly, bidding 390 times over their quota.

Qualified institutional bidders (QIBs) and retail investors oversubscribed 104 times and 75 times, respectively.

"Nazara is well placed to leverage the opportunity that interactive mobile games, eSports content and gamified early learning apps offer," Motilal Oswal analysts had earlier told Reuters.

Billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala holds a 10.82 per cent stake in Nazara Technologies but did not take part in the IPO.

After a successful opening, the stocks, however, dropped down as investors rushed to cash in their profits.

The stock tumbled to INR 1,592 on the BSE on Wednesday but is still trading at a premium of INR 1,658 and INR 1,659 on the BSE and NSE, respectively, at the time of writing this article.

It has a market capitalization of more than INR 6,000 crore on the listing. 

Founded in 2000 by Nitish Mittersain, Nazara Technologies currently has a diverse range of offerings, including eSports, fantasy sports, mobile gaming and gamified early learning.

World Cricket Championship (WCC) and CarromClash are two of its most successful mobile games. The firm also owns fantasy gaming platform HalaPlay, along with Kiddopia, Nodwin, Sportskeeda and Qunami.

Nazara Technologies is headquartered in Mumbai and has offices in Africa, Dubai and Singapore.