LEAP onboards former Rockstar Games co-founder Jamie King as an advisory board member

LEAP, a next generation sports-discovery and endorsement platform, signs Rockstar Games original co-founder Jamie King to serve as an Advisory Board Member. As an official member of the advisory board, King will leverage his experience and expertise in the gaming industry and product development to support LEAP’s upcoming platform launch, grow LEAP’s global community, and serve as spokesperson and evangelist for the company.

The mobile gaming industry’s meteoric rise in recent years culminated in 2021 with the generation of $93.2 billion, more than both the recorded music and box office industries combined. To continue this growth in the coming decades, industry leaders will find ways to adopt breakthrough technologies making giant strides in gaming, including within the blockchain and Web 3.0 ecosystem. Conversely, Web 3.0 companies looking to shake things up could benefit from the expertise of gaming industry veterans.

By recruiting King to join the LEAP team as an Advisory Board Member, the company adds a real asset with decades of experience and expertise in developing high-quality video games to its team. King will apply his experience and knowledge from the gaming industry to provide crucial insights for LEAP as it prepares for the platform’s launch.

Jamie King co-found Rockstar Games, the gaming studio behind the wildly successful GTA franchise, as well as Red Dead Redemption, Bully, Midnight Club and countless other popular games. As VP of Development at Rockstar, King was responsible for recruiting and managing the core team of engineers that designed the famous Rockstar Advanced Gaming Engine (RAGE) used for GTA, Red Dead Redemption, and other Rockstar games.

Starting in 2018, King served as Head of Esports for Engine Shop, where he worked with major clients such as the MLB, MLS, NHL, Anheser Bush, Twitch, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. During his time at Engine Shop, King won a couple of Tempest esports awards, three Chief Marketer Pro Awards, a 34th Sports Emmy nomination, and a Silver Clio for Bud Light’s BL6 gaming console. King currently works as the VP of Marketing for Solace Lifesciences Inc., where he’s part of the team responsible for NuCalm, the only patented, clinically proven neuro acoustic technology in the world that reduces stress and improves sleep without the need for drugs.

Through LEAP, youth athletes get to showcase their skill-sets in short-form videos uploaded to the platform. By specifically working with young athletes from impoverished and isolated communities, LEAP brings together a digital community of both youth sports talent and talent seekers to help the athletes, not only gain recognition, but also get rewarded based on their skill levels and continuous engagement in sport activities. The app features a customized video creator—LEAP Studio—with specific filters, sticks, and add-ons to help talents better highlight their individual skills based on their sport. Talents can use the videos to challenge each other in LEAP DARE Battles, where the community votes for whoever they think performed the skill better, and winning will boost the value and rarity of the users NFT Player Card.

“A gaming maverick of the likes of Jamie King will help LEAP not only grow our community, but also really pushes forward the integration of sports and gaming in a Web3.0 environment,” says Omri Lachman, CEO and Co-Founder of LEAP. “We are beyond thrilled to have Jamie on our team as an advisor and we have no doubt that he will do a tremendous job representing LEAP, building credibility and bringing our product closer to the people who can benefit the most from it.”

“I’m excited to be a part of the LEAP team because their platform is innovative and unique, something I’ve never seen before,” says Jamie King. “LEAP’s product aims to correct a major blindspot in the sports industry, and that is the lack of growth opportunities for athletes from isolated and disadvantaged communities around the world. I love the gamification aspect of LEAP’s platform but I especially love how it aims to democratize the sports industry.”