Dave & Buster’s will soon be offering social wagering through its rewards app.
The arcade giant’s app will allow loyalty members over the age of 18 to digitally compete with each other on a range of arcade games at its locations, including the Hot Shots basketball game and Skee-Ball.
Customers can bet on skills using Dave & Buster’s app
Dave & Busters will utilize technology from gamification software company Lucra to facilitate the in-app wagering. The option should be live in the coming months.
The company currently has more than 222 venues in North America and it says that it has 5 million loyalty members and 30 million unique visitors to its location each year.
“We’re thrilled to work with Lucra to bring this exciting new gaming platform to our customers,” said Dave & Buster’s Senior Vice President of Entertainment and Attractions Simon Murray. “This new partnership gives our loyalty members real-time, unrivaled gaming experiences, and reinforces our commitment to continuing to elevate our customer experience through innovative, cutting-edge technology.”
According to the release, the integration of gamification software into the Dave & Busters app will bring together the sports arena and the arcade for an “unparalleled, gamified experience”.
Lucra facilitates friendly real-money competitions
Lucra was founded in 2019 and offers a software platform that allows users to compete for real money on friendly competitions.
It has raised over $14 million in funding and received investment from professional athletes John Isner and Julie and Zach Ertz as well as the Raptor Group and SeventySix Capital.
So far over 150,000 customers have wagered $20 million on more than a million contests on Lucra’s direct-to-consumer platform.
Last year the company signed deals with the pickleball ratings system app Dupr and the tennis app TennisOne which allows users to compete in real money games.
“Our [Software Development Kit] will revolutionize the way people engage with the sport, offering an unprecedented opportunity for players to compete with their friends,” said Lucra CEO Dylan Robbins at the time of the DUPR announcement.
Dave & Busters does not consider the concept “betting” but is instead a real-money contest that falls under the scope of skill-based gaming.
A similar project is Full Swing, a golf concept launched earlier this year by Skill Money Games. The Full Swing golf simulator allows for real-money betting on who can get closest to the pin on the machine. The concept rolled out first at Swing Social in San Diego.
