Glance acquires Gambit to launch NFT-based live gaming

Singapore-based consumer internet company Glance, which had signed an agreement to raise $200 million funding from Jio Platforms in February, has announced that it has acquired Indian gaming company Gambit to accelerate its ambition to build the largest platform for NFT-based live gaming experiences for Gen-Z in markets.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Co-founded in 2015 by Yashashvi Takallapalli, Gaurav Konar, Ranaveer Sankieneni and Deepak Venkatramani, Gambit owns and operates Nostragamus (Nostra Pro),  a highly popular gaming platform with fantasy sports, poker, rummy, quiz and hyper-casual games. Over 100 million games have been played on the Nostragamus platform, and it has close to 10 million registered users. 

The acquisition intends to combine Glance’s scale and lock screen-centric innovation with Gambit’s expertise in the gaming ecosystem. Glance’s lock screen gaming platform has over 45 million monthly active users in Asia. Nearly 70% of its users are between the ages of 18-34, while more than 40% of its players are women.

“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. We also aim 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,” he added. 

With the acquisition of Gambit, in addition to launching highly engaging live gaming experiences including tournaments, game shows, game streaming and multiplayer on the lock screen, Glance will also launch a multitude of casual-to-midcore games that can be enjoyed by a variety of gamer groups.

In the coming quarters, Glance also 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.  

Said Yashashvi Takallapalli, Co-founder and CEO, Gambit, “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.”