Global esports brand Ninjas in Pyjamas (part of the NIP Group) has announced a new Web3 partnership with Chiliz Group through its brand Socios.com, a known player in the cryptocurrency and blockchain spaces. The partnership will focus on the Dojo, NIP’s fan engagement platform created in 2024. NIP and Socios aim to use the Chiliz Chain to enhance the fan experience through its Dojo platform, but the two partners have not announced the specifics to date.
Image credit: NIP Group / Chiliz Group
Socios.com is a fan engagement platform built on the Chiliz blockchain, which was created by the Chiliz Group. Socios is one of the most popular fan engagement tools in the Web3 space, and the platform has partnered with several high-profile esports companies in the past, including OG Esports, NAVI, Team Heretics, and MIBR.
The partnership between Socios/Chiliz and Ninjas in Pyjamas is interesting because the company has created The Dojo with another crypto partner, Ziliqa. The two brands first partnered in 2021 for a five-year deal, but then expanded the agreement in 2024 to focus on the fan engagement platform. Since Socios.com is a specialist in these types of fan experiences, it remains to be seen whether this means that Ziliqa is no longer a partner on the Dojo.
The new, high-profile partner for NIP is the latest in a string of deals made by the NIP Group, a new venture created by the merger of NIP and Chinese esports brands ESV5.
Since its creation, the company has begun trading publicly on the NASDAQ stock exchange and launched a game publishing division before receiving a $40m investment from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office early this year.
Hicham Chahine, NIP Group Founder and Co-CEO, said:
Our fanbase keeps growing. With the addition of new titles, it’s much more diverse than it was just a few years ago. Partnering with Socios.com allows us to bring our loyal Ninjas together in a fun and immersive way, while remaining flexible enough to keep up with the evolving pace of esports.