Glance to bring NFT games to Lockscreen, buys Indian company Gambit Sports

Lockscreen platform Glance has purchased Indian gaming company Gambit Sports as part of its plan to bring NFT gaming services to your smartphone. An unconsolidated subsidiary of the InMobi group and funded by Google, Glance designs lock screens with integrated games. Glance has completed the agreement to acquire Bengaluru-based Gambit Sports for an undisclosed sum, just a month after reaching an agreement with Reliance Jio. The platform aims to add an NFT element to its live lock screen games.

Founded in 2015, Gambit Sports owns and operates popular fantasy sports gaming platform NostraGamus. The company claims to have nearly 10 million registered users.

“We have already started to see great traction for live games. With the combined strengths of Glance and Gambit and our belief that there’s a game for everyone. We plan to double the number of monthly active players on Glance Games over the next year,” said Yashashvi Takallapalli, co-founder and CEO of Gambit Sports in a statement.

Glance intends to utilize gaming techniques from Gambit Sports and launch engaging live gaming experiences including tournaments, game shows, streaming games and lock screen multiplayer games which will include more late NFTs.

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are digital collectibles built on the blockchain. They could be inspired by characters from games and cartoons, among other elements.

NFT-based games expand relevant communities, especially among the Gen-Z population. This is the target group that Glance aims to capture.

“Gen Z spends more time on games than any other online activity Providing users with live, connected and interactive gaming experiences on the lock screen is key to Glance’s vision to build the greatest live internet platform in the world,” noted Piyush Shah, co-founder of InMobi Group and president and chief operating officer of Glance.

The lock screen maker plans to add a play-to-win feature to its NFT-based games to entice more gamers to use its services.

“We also aim to launch creator-driven NFTs for live gaming that will generate unique play-to-win and play-to-own opportunities for the entire gaming ecosystem,” Shah added.

After raising $200 million (about Rs 1,523 crore) in funding from Jio, Glance will bring its lock screens to Jio handsets in the coming months.

A report by DappRadar had recently stated that a whopping 804,000 unique active players logged into blockchain-based games in July 2021.

The blockchain gaming industry grew by 765% in 2021, according to a report by Forbes in January this year.

Earlier this week, PUBG developer Krafton struck a deal with Solana Labs, sparking rumors about its potential plans to add crypto and NFT elements to its games.