Dave & Buster’s, the North Texas-based arcade-and-dining experience, has offered great family fun since its founding in 1982. Soon, people 18 and older could be having a little extra fun as they wind their way through the venues’ games, playing everything from skee-ball to laser tag to Dodgeball Ultimate Arena.
The Coppell-headquartered company—which owns and operates 164 Dave & Buster’s venues across the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico, in addition to 59 Main Event locations—has partnered with New York-based Lucra, a leading tech provider of gamification services, to provide customers with a “fully immersive” gaming experience at venues nationwide.
In other words, the ability to bet on that next skee-ball roll, and win some actual cash.
The new strategic partnership “integrates Lucra’s proprietary gamification software into the Dave & Buster’s app, allowing loyalty members to digitally compete with each other, earn rewards, and unlock exclusive perks while competing with friends at Dave & Buster’s—bringing together the sports arena and the arcade for an unparalleled, gamified experience,” Lucra announced.
According to CNBC, the two companies said a limit will be placed on the size of “skills-based” bets allowed through the program. The report noted that that the average bet size across Lucra’s history has been $10.
Simon Murray, SVP of Entertainment and Attractions at Dave and Buster’s, said his company is “thrilled to work with Lucra to bring this exciting new gaming platform to our customers.”
““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,” Murray added in a statement.
‘Destigmatizing cash-based competition’
Lucra said it aims to “destigmatize cash-based competition” by evolving it into a fun, friendly, and social experience, which pretty much describes the atmosphere in your neighborhood Dave & Buster’s. The New York company says it does that “by providing a safe and trustworthy experience for people to challenge their friends, inside a platform or place they already know and love.”
Lucra said it began its operations as a direct-to-consumer gaming company for several years—growing it to “150K+ customers, 1M+ real-money contests, and $20M+ of handle,” before identifying a “bigger opportunity if it embedded its gamification tech directly into existing communities & established platforms.”
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