Scuti and NBALab let gamers earn rewards and digital collectibles

Scuti and NBALab have teamed up on a “gcommerce” platform to enable gamers to earn rewards and digital collectibles in games.

New York-based Scuti focuses on gcommerce, or commerce through gaming, and it is offering gamers a first look at limited edition NBA Reclaimed collectibles with every purchase, which gamers can use to buy digital items in their favorite games.

“We are basically going to be giving gamers a first look opportunity at products from the NBALab, which is really, really cool stuff,” said Nicholas Longano, CEO of Scuti, in an interview with GamesBeat. “These are all limited edition NBA Reclaimed core pieces.”

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Longano noted that the collectibles are built on pieces of wood from NBA basketball courts. Those courts are torn up one every seven years or so. And so the reclaimed pieces of wood are used to make the figurines. For each player, there are a limited number of collectibles available for sale.

NBALab is a disruptive research and development incubator focused on innovative design, imaginative concepts and strategic partnerships, and manages NBA Reclaimed, an officially licensed program that repurposes game-used courts. NBA Reclaimed offers unique collectibles such as figurines and pieces of historic courts that will be available to players through the Scuti store.

“NBALAB is constantly looking for new industries to immerse ourselves into and innovative platforms to offer our unique products to fans, and we found both with SCUTI,” said Billi Kid, the chief creative officer at NBALab, in a statement. “We’re excited to offer gamers a chance to own a piece of history.”

You can find the Scuti store in the lobby of a game. You can purchase the NBA Lab item and then get your rewards, which could be something like 5% back.

“The figurines and anything you buy from Scuti are helping to fuel your game experience,” Longano said. “Hopefully they will continue to escalate in value over time.

Scuti provides brands access to the desired gaming audience – 3.2 billion gamers globally, 227 million gamers in the U.S. alone, with a projected spending power of $6.5 trillion in 2024. Players are rewarded SCUTI$ virtual currency with every purchase and can use SCUTI$ rewards to make in-game purchases (paid for by brands).

The team worked on this for several months. Scuti visited the NBALab in Norwalk, Connecticut. Longano said Scuti can help lift revenues for game makers anywhere from 15% to 20%. Retention also improves as players spend more time in the game, even with casual games.

It doesn’t count as gambling because you’re not rewarded for the outcome of a specific bet. Rather, you’re rewarded for just coming back to an app. The company has about 61 people, or about double in the past year.

“As a gamers’ marketplace, Scuti is always looking for innovative brands that will drive conversations in gaming and offer players access to unique products,” said Longano. “NBALab’s collectibles are an obvious choice, providing players with early access to pieces of history, which they can purchase directly from their game, through Scuti, and in turn, use their rewards to fuel their gameplay.”

Scuti’s rewarded gcommerce platform combined with its in-play advertising partners never interrupt gameplay, providing players direct access to curated and limited-edition products, like NBALab, rewarding every purchase to enhance their in-game experience.

“We’re gonna start seeing a lot more partners like this doing really cool things,” Longano said.