- Sbarter is preparing for a global rollout of its platform and aims to reach 10 million users in the next five years.
- The non-profit is exploring ways to launch in India but says it will remain respectful of the country’s new rules.
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Switzerland-based non-profit association Sbarter set out plans to raise a €40 million ($46.5m) Series A earlier this year, with its sights on redefining skill-based games with blockchain technology.
It’s already completed its pre-seed and seed rounds, and is raising new investment through offering six billion SBT tokens as part of a regulated 14 billion-token sale.
Sbarter faces a few key challenges – web3’s struggle for adoption in the games space at large and real-money regulation changes around the world which saw a sudden ban in India that wiped billions of dollars off the country’s games market almost overnight.
Next step
Sbarter believes it can scale despite all this – with the goal to reach 10m users in five years. The first studio to utilise the Sbarter protocol is Vivid Games with Real Boxing 3, with others set to be announced soon.
“This round is about scale,” Sbarter CMO Dominique Cor tells PocketGamer.biz. “The protocol is built, audited and already operating with selected partners.
“The next step is preparing for a responsible global rollout. The funds will expand publisher integrations, strengthen compliance and payment infrastructure in key regions, and ensure Sbarter launches as a stable, transparent system from day one.”
Cor claims the blockchain element lets publishers keep control of their data and validation, while players get a system where outcomes are protected. Asked why web3 tech hasn’t been adopted en masse in games, Cor says it’s because blockchain was never tied to a real operational need.
“For now, India is paused, and we are continuing our work in markets where the framework is clear.”
Dominique Cor
“Most web3 attempts tried to reshape game economies instead of supporting how games already work,” he explains. “When technology asks players or studios to change their behaviour, adoption slows.
“Our approach is different: Sbarter focuses on enabling competitive play and giving studios a safe, transparent way to drive retention and new revenue. To make that work reliably at scale, we needed infrastructure that could secure outcomes and automate the process safely. Blockchain was simply the most effective tool for that, not the premise of the project.”
Regulatory hurdles
India’s real-money gaming ban is a warning to the rest of the world. Billions of investment has been lost, while skill-based gaming has links to gambling. Despite being skill-based, players are betting real money on unknown outcomes.
Cor admits India’s decision is a reminder of how quickly the regulatory landscape can shift. He claims Sbarter is built with a “compliance-first, jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction approach”.
“When rules change, we pause, assess and adapt,” he says. “We are already in close contact with our legal partners and with the relevant Indian regulators to understand whether a fully compliant path could exist in the future.
“It hasn’t slowed our overall roadmap, because our rollout has always been multi-market and designed for this kind of complexity.”
Cor adds: “For now, India is paused, and we are continuing our work in markets where the framework is clear. If a compliant route reopens in India, we’ll engage and move forward responsibly.”
Asked whether Sbarter is concerned other countries will adopt similar measures, Cor says it isn’t worried, but is instead “ready for it”.
“If other countries introduce tougher rules, our answer doesn’t change. We stay in dialogue, we adapt where needed, and we keep proving that this model can run responsibly at global scale.”
“Gambling relies on chance and on a house. Sbarter has neither.”
Dominique Cor
Asked if he thinks there’s a misunderstanding about skill-based gaming’s links to gambling, and if he thinks it’s fair to label it as such given players are betting money, Cor says such a term would be “inaccurate”.
“Gambling relies on chance and on a house,” he explains. “Sbarter has neither: amounts are small, capped and deliberately designed to keep the experience responsible.
“They aren’t there to drive financial gain – they play the same role they do in real life when two friends put a few euros on a game of darts or pool at the bar to make things more exciting. That behaviour already exists, and we are simply giving it a safe and compliant structure.
“The most important addition Sbarter brings is a way to structure the competitive behaviours that already happen in games whether it’s two players challenging each other, or a community organising its own moments of competition. Everything stays within the existing gameplay, with clear limits, verified outcomes and a framework that keeps it fair and transparent.”
