Snipp Interactive, a Toronto-based platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) company in the global loyalty and promotions sector, announced Tuesday the completion of its acquisition of Gambit Digital Promotions Inc., including its wholly-owned subsidiary, Gambit Rewards. This acquisition allows Snipp to connect more than $60 billion market for online gaming and sports betting in unused loyalty points.
As previously announced by the company on January 11, Snipp entered into a binding acquisition agreement with Gambit, and each of its shareholders.
Gambit is a regulator-approved consumer network that integrates loyalty programs with online gaming and sports betting in America. It operates a proprietary and patent-pending platform for turning loyalty points into free-to-play tokens, which can then be used to participate in various online gaming and live sports betting opportunities.
The platform also provides brands across the United States with a solution to unlocking the $100 billion value in unused loyalty points, which can then be used to participate in various online gaming and live sports betting opportunities while simultaneously offering a new way to engage with the high growth vertical of online gaming and sports betting.
Launched in 2019 as a solution for gamifying rewards programs, Gambit players can use various loyalty points to play for actual cash winnings, cryptocurrencies, charity contributions or other prizes, without risking any real money.
Gambit enables players to convert their accumulated points in their existing rewards programs to Gambit Play Tokens, which can then be used to participate in online gaming and live sports betting opportunities, and to spend their Gambit winnings on a variety of growing incentives. All activity is centralized at GambitRewards.com, creating a single hub for Loyalty Gaming across the entire rewards landscape. Gambit’s early investors include gaming executives and entrepreneurs, Matt Davey and David VanEgmond.
Pursuant to the acquisition agreement, upon closing, Snipp has purchased all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Gambit Digital Promotions Inc. from the Vendors for $5 million, of which $0.3 million has been paid in cash and $4.7 million has been paid with 20,524,925 common shares of Snipp to the vendors.
Atul Sabharwal, Founder and CEO of Snipp stated: “Since announcing the proposed acquisition of Gambit, a trailblazer in the Loyalty Gaming sector, we have received a flurry of interest from leading players in the iGaming and Sports Betting industry in America. As previously announced, one of the strategic rationales of this acquisition was the opportunity to license our SnippCARE (Customer Acquisition, Retention and Engagement) Platform to an entirely new industry – the iGaming and online sports betting industry, but also to the related traditional casino-entertainment vertical”.
“We are excited by the depth and quality of some of the conversations that we are now having with some of the leading players in these industries. These were largely the result of our acquisition of Gambit and we are confident we will see resulting near term revenue opportunities for our SnippCARE Platform as a result. In addition, we have also already completed a base integration with Gambit’s Loyalty Gaming Platform and have commenced offering Gambit Token Gift Cards as an integral part of the SnippREWARDS module thereby providing our existing clients with access to a truly unique reward-experience that taps into the online gaming & sports betting super trend”, he continued.
“We are now the exclusive avenue through which our roster of Fortune 500 clients (and other permitted resellers) can incentivize their customers with gift cards to engage in iGaming and sports betting on the Gambit Loyalty Gaming platform. Since announcing the acquisition Gambit has also gained further distribution into new resellers and we look forward to sharing the completion of the integrations with these new resellers in the coming months as they bring the Gambit card online within their networks.”
Richard Pistilli, Gambit CEO stated: “We have witnessed a very positive response from the market since joining the Snipp family. In January, we launched a first-of-its-kind joint promotion with a leading gaming operator across live sports bars during the Superbowl. We are also now working with several of the largest digital gift card networks, as well as our first major partner in the consumer survey and incentives space. We expect to add dozens of new rewards programs to our platform over the coming months as we leverage the Snipp network and expertise to accelerate our go-to-market strategy.”
According to Grandview Research, the global online gambling market is forecasted to reach $112.1 billion, up from $64.1 billion in 2020. This rapid growth is being driven in part by the rising popularity of digital sports betting in the United States, which began in 2018 after the Supreme Court struck down a federal ban.
Sports betting is now live in 23 states and the District of Columbia, including New York, where mobile sports wagering officially began on January 8 of this year.
According to Goldman Sachs, the US online sports betting industry could reach $39 billion by 2033. Media companies – from Fox to Sports Illustrated – have already cut deals with sports betting companies, as has every major sports league – from the NFL to the PGA. Even major household brands, such as Disney have announced their expansion into the industry given the unprecedented wave of support amongst its fans.
