Across product development, partnerships and industry events, we continued expanding the infrastructure that helps studios create deeper financial relationships with players to drive engagement, retention and long-term value.
Our conversations with developers, publishers and partners throughout the quarter confirmed that the industry is keen to embrace real-money rewards and other mechanics that help retain players and strengthen engagement over time.
Company Announcements
We published our first independent industry report, Developer Insights: The Engagement & Retention Challenge, based on responses from mobile game professionals across the US and UK.
The findings matched many of the conversations we’re having with game teams today:
- 80% say retention and engagement strategies are becoming repetitive.
- 51% identify balancing monetization with player experience as a major challenge.
- 90% are actively considering or implementing loyalty and reward systems.
The report was covered across gaming media and sparked conversations around where the next phase of mobile game growth will come from.
We also welcomed Gordon Thornton as ZBD’s Chief Commercial Officer. After joining earlier this year as a consultant, Gordon now leads our commercial organization across Business Development, Customer Success, and Marketing.
Recognition from the wider fintech and gaming industries also grew throughout the quarter. ZBD won Best Payments System for Gaming at the 2026 PayTech Awards and was nominated for Best Payment Service Provider at the PocketGamer.biz Mobile Games Awards.
We also brought the team together for our annual off-site, where colleagues from across product, engineering, commercial and operations spent the week collaborating through workshops, planning sessions and strategy discussions as we prepare for the next phase of growth.
Product Development
Our vision remains the same: giving studios more control over how money moves in, through, and out of their games, and turn it into a driver of engagement, revenue, and loyalty.
During Q2, we continued to onboard new games while further strengthening our Embedded Rewards product. We expanded the developer dashboard with new tooling to simplify integrations and introduced additional fraud prevention measures, including stronger device and app verification, to help ensure rewards reach genuine players.
Behind the scenes, we’re continuing to build the broader licensed financial infrastructure that powers the full money lifecycle, giving studios more flexibility over how value is created, distributed and retained within their own ecosystems. We’ll have more to share on that later this year.
Industry Events
Our conference season took us across MAU Vegas, Gamesforum Hamburg, and Pocket Gamer Connects Barcelona, where we shared how studios are using embedded rewards to increase engagement, retention and LTV.
Those discussions reinforced what we’re hearing across the industry: rewards work best when they’re part of the core game experience, not an isolated marketing tactic.
MAU Vegas
At MAU Vegas, we showcased ZBD Earn on the conference floor, hosted a networking happy hour with Prodege and Mintegral, and joined the Innovation in Action stage for a panel on how native rewards can unlock long-term player loyalty. Hajar Noreddine was joined by Dan Novaes (Mode Mobile) and Jakub Remiar (Two and a Half Gamers), moderated by Ömer Yakabagi (Gamigion).
Gamesforum Hamburg
At Gamesforum Hamburg, Hajar Noreddine joined Álvaro Zorrilla (GAMEE) and Oxana Fomina (Gradient Universe) for a discussion on how rewarded play is evolving beyond user acquisition and becoming part of long-term retention strategies. We also hosted a private dinner with industry partners following the event.
Pocket Gamer Connects Barcelona
We rounded off the conference season at Pocket Gamer Connects Barcelona, where Igor Melnik joined Frank Yan (AntiheRo Studios), Katerina Maliaran (Burny Games) and moderator Felipe Marta (Ludor) to discuss balancing monetization with player experience. Alongside the panel, the team met with partners and studios throughout the event to continue conversations started earlier in the quarter.
In Closing
Studios are looking beyond one-off acquisition tactics and toward new mechanics that strengthen retention, deepen player relationships and support sustainable monetization. That’s exactly what we’re building: from embedded rewards already live in games today to the licensed financial infrastructure of tomorrow that powers the full money lifecycle.
If you’re exploring how real-money could fit into your game, we’d love to connect. You can also meet the team at upcoming industry events or get in touch to learn how embedded rewards are already being implemented across live titles.