Through a simple API integration, Mastercard Gamer Xchange allows consumers to convert rewards points into gaming currency across nearly 4,000 gaming titles

Mastercard today officially announced the launch of Mastercard Gamer Xchange (MGX), a first-of-its-kind, turnkey solution that helps consumers convert their unspent rewards points into gaming currency across nearly 4,000 of the world’s most popular gaming titles. A scalable solution that operates within the app or website environment of loyalty platforms, MGX facilitates a convenient exchange through a simple API integration, allowing for fast and seamless redemption.

With COVID-19 and its accompanying restrictions impacting once regular activities such as shopping, travel, and dining, people have increasingly turned to alternative avenues of entertainment such as gaming to satiate their need for richer and more diverse experiences. Simultaneously, consumers have been constrained by their inability to redeem their accumulated rewards points, triggering a sense of dissatisfaction amongst them, while also posing a significant financial liability for loyalty program owners.

By fusing together the world of rewards and the immense opportunity within the ever-growing global gaming community, MGX presents itself as an intuitive, innovative, and intelligent solution that addresses this gap in the ecosystem. Targeting medium-to-high spending gaming audiences, the new conversion engine aims to give them an alternative rewards solution, alongside giving rewards program managers a first-mover advantage in the gaming space.

“The gaming audience in Asia is growing incredibly diverse – be it in terms of age groups, genders, life-stages, or income levels. The market is booming with possibility, and with the dynamics of the rewards redemption industry being irreversibly modified, there is no better time than now for brands and consumers to benefit from stepping into the gaming arena. Through one simple, seamless solution that integrates flexibility and functionality, MGX creates a whole new category in rewards redemption programs, one that doesn’t currently exist, and allows owners of reward programs to connect with the world’s fastest-expanding entertainment market in ways that truly matter to them.” said Kaveri Khullar, Vice President, Consumer Marketing & Sponsorships at Mastercard Asia Pacific.

Home to 54% of the world’s gaming audience, and with an estimated gaming community size of 1.8 billion by 2024, Asia Pacific is the first region to launch MGX, although the solution is international and supports gaming products and currencies in local languages across 75 countries worldwide.

This latest announcement demonstrates Mastercard broadening its presence in the gaming industry, after having diversified its sports and entertainment portfolio with gaming titles and ambassadors from 2018.