Glance has bought India’s Gambit, according to TechCrunch, as the Google-backed company wants to expand its mobile game offerings and introduce NFTs to its Gen-Z consumers.
The acquisition was verified by Piyush Shah, co-founder of InMobi Group and COO of Glance, although the financial parameters of the deal were not disclosed. He told TechCrunch that the acquisition will allow the Jio Platforms-backed company to deliver live game shows and NFT-based incentivization to its consumers to enhance their gaming experience.
Glance, which partners with phone manufacturers to offer media, entertainment, and news information to users’ lock screens on handsets, has turned its attention to gaming. Last year, the firm, which has a presence on over 400 million devices, tested casual games on its platform.
Glance is known for acquiring small businesses and rapidly scaling their capabilities while widening its platform, as it has done with Roposo and Shop101 in recent years.
Every month, about 10 million individuals watch live games streaming on Glance. So we thought, “How can we bring live game shows to the platform as well?” Shah stated
He claims that NFTs will provide a slew of advantages to users. “It will have utilitarian benefits, such as allowing users to construct powerful characters in games by owning digital virtual assets,” he said. “At the same time, these NFTs might be published and exchanged on NFT marketplaces and exchanges to enable users to earn and own them,” he added.
He wouldn’t say which blockchain the company is using.
He added that the company intends to work with players and influencers, as well as other gaming companies. According to him, the platform’s NFTs will capture micro-moments from the game as well as high-order virtual avatars. The company claims that “this would possibly enable creators, streamers, and developers to earn through assets and NFT-based game production, while providing players with unique experiences that they adore.” (Glance is avoiding bringing Gambit’s fantasy sports offerings, which include Nostragamus, to India because of local regulations.)
“We envisage increasing the number of monthly active players on Glance Games in the next year with the combined strengths of Glance and Gambit, and our belief that there is a game for everyone,” said Yashashvi Takallapalli, co-founder and chief executive of Gambit, in a statement.
According to a source familiar with the situation, fantasy sports company Dream11 is in talks to buy a 30 to 40% share in NFT startup Rario for over $100 million. (Some aspects of the purchase were previously disclosed in the Indian newspaper Economic Times.) The NFT business, FanCraze, which has an exclusive deal with the ICC and is funded by Sequoia Capital India, said earlier this week that it had raised $100 million in a funding round.
Last month, Indian game company SuperGaming teamed up with Siddharth Menon, the co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, to launch Tegro, a web3 games marketplace.
