Established mobile games company, Stick Sports, embraces blockchain to revolutionise the way the industry rewards players

01 August 2018, London, UK – Mobile games company Stick Sports Ltd., creator of Stick Cricket and Stick Tennis, is seizing the opportunity offered by blockchain to disrupt the status quo in the free-to-play mobile games environment.

The disruption centres around player ownership of assets in a game. To date, assets in games are essentially licensed to the player by the publisher, but Stick Sports’ upcoming reboot of their Stick Cricket game will utilise blockchain technology to allow players to authentically own the assets they buy, win, earn or otherwise create while playing. Players will be able to record their own history on items – making them truly unique – as well as being able to own, trade, loan, customise and develop the key components of a game. Assets will have real-world value both inside and outside of the game environment.

Stick Sports’ founders believe that this development is the natural evolution for the games industry, now made possible by blockchain tech. With a focus on the players, it transforms their role from consumers to stakeholders with genuine investment in the success and development of the game they’re playing.

Current Situation

Currently blockchain-enabled games present significant barriers to entry for the average gamer not interested in cryptocurrencies. Crypto-games often feature limited or monotonous gameplay and, accordingly, achieve underwhelming daily active users.

Stick Sports believes that players of blockchain-enabled games should not by necessity be cryptocurrency early adopters, but simply gamers. With this end in mind, they’ve committed to creating a suite of technologies that brings blockchain to gamers rather than gamers to blockchain.

Their upcoming reboot aims to introduce blockchain transparently and seamlessly into the hugely popular Stick Cricket game, without any of the barriers that are a turn-off for regular players. The current game boasts 450,000 daily active users, making it primed for major adoption.

A Change Is Coming

Paul Collins, Stick Sports Founder and CEO believes that this development will signify a fundamental change in the relationship between the player, the publisher, and commercial partners – a change equivalent to the profound impact caused by the arrival of mobile games and the free-to-play monetisation model. “After this shift,” he says, “there will be no going back for the industry.”

However, he maintains that, where currently available blockchain-enabled games tend to become complicated or tedious, Stick Sports will keep their main focus on maintaining the user-friendliness and playability that characterises its titles, with fun and addictive skill mechanics and simple and fast-flowing gameplay. “We’ll continue making games for gamers.”

An Untapped Market

The new game will launch in India where cricket is immensely popular and there is a huge untapped potential for a cricket game within the booming mobile games market. India is the largest market for Google Play downloads and has the highest estimated growth for handsets – expected to rise from 337 million in 2018 to 491 million in 2022.

Stick Sports is looking forward to bringing all the benefits of asset ownership within a new game, while targeting a defined and addressable market. With cricket also being the number one sport in India, gamers in the Indian market will be at the heart of the evolution in the industry.

“As a leading adopter of mobile games and free-to-play formats, we strive to be at the forefront of change within the games industry,” says Collins. “We’re incredibly excited about the radical evolution this new initiative will bring."

Ends

About Stick Sports

Stick Sports is a mobile games developer and leading provider of sports-based games – reaching over 70 million downloads across both iOS and Android platforms and being consistently featured by App Store and Google Play editors. One of their latest games, Stick Cricket Super League, is the highest-rated cricket game on iOS and Android – with industry-leading retention rates. Their cricket games dominate the charts in the cricket-playing nations, while their tennis apps have topped the sports games charts in 120 countries. They have successfully partnered and supported campaigns with global brands that include: Pepsi, KFC, Slazenger and UEFA, while more bespoke projects have led them to work closely with cricket legends: Mark Waugh, AB De Villiers, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.

Stick Sports – Timeline

2004 – Stick Cricket launches
2010 – Stick Cricket launch on iOS App Store
2011 – Stick Cricket launch on Android
2012 – Stick Tennis launch on iOS during Wimbledon
2016 – Super League launches. Top rated cricket game on App Store and Google Play
2019 – Stick Cricket Blockchain Launch!

Visit:
www.sticksports.com
https://cricket.sticksports.io

Press Enquiries Contact:
Samantha Sanchis – Communications Manager
Stick Sports Limited
e: press@sticksports.com
t: +44 (0)8456 890 714