Social competition platform Lucra has announced a new partnership with Great Linqx to integrate real-money gaming into a series of upcoming sports entertainment venues. The collaboration involves using Lucra’s white-label mobile technology to power a dedicated app for Great Linqx developments. This app will allow visitors to engage in peer-to-peer challenges and tournaments when the first site opens in 2027.

Great Linqx specialises in mixed-use developments that combine athletic experiences with residential and community infrastructure. Each complex will feature multi-sport simulators covering more than 10 sports and 30 gaming activities. The venues are also planned to include full-service bars and restaurants. The firm is specifically targeting American metropolitan areas with populations between 150,000 and 700,000 people. These markets often have high growth and university presence but lack major sports entertainment destinations.

“Great Linqx is building something we have not seen before in this space,” said Dylan Robbins, CEO of Lucra. “This is not just a golf venue. It is a community destination with sports entertainment at its core, and it is going into markets that have been waiting for exactly this kind of experience. When you layer real-money competition and a loyalty engine on top of that from day one, every visit becomes more meaningful. Guests are not just hitting balls or playing simulators. They are competing for something, and that changes everything about how they engage with the venue and with each other.”

The technology will enable guests to enter skill-based contests and track their progress on live leaderboards. Winnings can be converted into credits for food, drink or simulator time. This creates a loyalty system intended to encourage repeat visits. Great Linqx plans a national rollout of 15 locations over the next five years following the launch of its first site.

“Most operators think about technology after they have figured out everything else. We made the decision to build competition and loyalty into Great Linqx before we broke ground on our first location, because we believe it is fundamental to what makes this concept work,” said Mike Kuntz, CEO of Great Linqx. “People come for the experience, but they come back because something is at stake. Lucra gives us the infrastructure to deliver that from day one, at every location we open.”