Real-money chess takes off as Lucra powers Chess Kings platform
In a pairing as deliberate as a grandmaster’s endgame, Lucra and Chess Kings have joined forces to bring real-money competition to the digital chessboard — a bold gambit in a world yet unplayed.
The rollout begins in the United States, with Lucra’s proprietary tech underpinning a platform aimed squarely at chess’s global player base.
From neon-lit venues to quiet clicks on a screen, Lucra’s journey continues, pushing gamified experiences beyond the bustle of Dave & Buster’s and the swing of Puttshack.
Chess will make its first move online, but the true play lies in the palm of your hand by way of a mobile frontier waiting to unfold.
It is the oldest game of intellect, played by 600 million minds worldwide, yet for all its strategy, chess has stood apart from the lure of real-money stakes until now. This alliance marks a quiet revolution, with Lucra’s engine humming beneath the surface and the voice of Chess Kings echoing through media halls. Their goal? To take the old rules of chess and plug them into a new engine, where skill meets stakes and the board starts paying back.
Inside the partnership powering the platform
“Chess represents an exciting new frontier for competitive gaming,” said Dylan Robbins, Chief Executive Officer at Lucra. “By partnering with Chess Kings, we’re helping to create an innovative platform that will bring new dimensions to how people experience and engage with chess.”
Players will soon be able to put their money where their next move is: one-on-one challenges, cash-fuelled tournaments, or head-to-head bragging rights. Lucra’s technology handles all payments, compliance, and risk management on behalf of the partner platform, ensuring a fully white-labelled experience. That includes full third-party vendor integration and an in-house risk management team.
For Chess Kings, the deal is as much about scale as it is about gameplay. Built as a media and gaming platform with ambitions to reach amateurs and professionals, Chess Kings is leveraging its access to Grandmasters, streaming content, and fantasy formats to attract a wide user base.
“We chose to partner with Lucra because of their unmatched expertise in competitive gameplay technology,” said John Iavarone, founder of Chess Kings. “Their comprehensive backend infrastructure with numerous third-party vendors and a full in-house team focusing on risk management gives us confidence that we can deliver a seamless user experience while ensuring the highest standards of compliance and security.”
Chess Kings will be the consumer-facing brand, leveraging its content assets and entertainment reach to drive user acquisition. Lucra handles the engine room, keeping everything ticking behind the scenes with its tech and compliance muscle.
The integration is built on three pillars:
- Driving user engagement through meaningful, competitive play
- Introducing real-money formats into a previously untapped intellectual game space
- Positioning for international scale following an initial U.S. rollout
A new vertical for skill-based gaming
The initial rollout is scheduled for late 2025, with a full launch timeline to follow. The legal path remains unwritten, but the framing is deliberate. In a country wary of chance, chess walks in with a different name — skill. And that may be its greatest defence. However, backgammon players may disagree. In that game, one roll of the dice can flip fortunes in an instant.
Lucra’s entrance into chess signals a maturing of the social gamification model it has refined in hospitality and entertainment venues. By fusing Lucra’s engine room with Chess Kings’ content pull, the pair are building more than a product — they’re testing a new playbook for real-money digital sports where chess leads, and other games may soon follow.
And if it works, it won’t end here. Long untouched by real-money play, other intellectual games could soon follow suit.
