Glance, a Singapore-based startup that utilises artificial intelligence to provide personalised content to smartphone lock screens, announced today that it has acquired Gambit Sports, an India-based gaming company, to bring NFT-based live gaming to lock screens throughout the world.
Glance said five weeks ago that it was funding $200 million (about Rs 1,507 crore) to expand in Asia and launch in key global markets such as the United States, Brazil, Mexico, and Russia.
Glance will achieve its goal of being the largest platform for NFT-based live gaming experiences for Gen-Z across markets as a result of this acquisition, according to the announcement.
Gambit’s expertise will be used to offer highly engaging live gaming experiences such as tournaments, game shows, game streaming, and multi-player lock screen games.
Glance’s scalability and lock screen-centric innovation will be combined with Gambit’s skills and understanding of the gaming ecosystem. Glance Games has over 45 million monthly active users across Asia on its lock screen gaming platform. It states that about 70% of its players are between the ages of 18 and 34, and that over 40% of its gamers are female.
“Gaming is the most exciting content category across the world today and Gen-Z spends more time on gaming than on any other activity online,” said Piyush Shah, Co-founder of InMobi Group and President and COO, Glance. “Giving users live, connected, interactive gaming experiences on the lock screen is key to Glance’s vision of building the world’s largest live internet platform,” Piyush said.
He further said Glance also aims to launch creator-led NFTs for live gaming which will generate unique ‘play-to-earn’ and ‘play-to-own’ possibilities for the entire gaming ecosystem.
Gambit owns and manages Nostragamus (Nostra Pro), a gaming platform including fantasy sports, poker, rummy, quizzes, and hyper-casual games, and was founded in 2015 by Yashashvi Takallapalli, Gaurav Konar, Ranaveer Sankieneni, and Deepak Venkatramani. The Nostragamus platform has over 100 million registered users and has played over 100 million games, according to the announcement.
Yashashvi Takallapalli, Co-founder & CEO, Gambit, said: “We have already started seeing great traction for live gaming on Glance. For instance, over 10 million users watch live game streams on Glance every week now. With Glance and Gambit’s combined strengths and our belief that there is a game for every person, we envision doubling the number of monthly active gamers on Glance Games in the next year.”
Notably, In the coming quarters, Glance says it plans to launch NFTs in live gaming. This will potentially enable creators, streamers, and developers to monetize through assets and NFT-based game creation while giving gamers unique experiences that they love, it adds.
