Niantic has been offering sponsored locations to businesses for “Pokemon Go” and “Harry Potter: Wizards Unite” for a while now. Companies like AT&T, Sprint, and McDonald’s have sponsored locations in these games. Now, the sponsored locations will be open even to small businesses.

The idea of Niantic’s sponsored locations is that by transforming your business into an in-game location, you are giving players to stop by, thereby increasing your traffic. “Pokemon Go” over the past couple of years has featured Sponsored Gyms and Pokestops. Big companies have used these select locations.

But this is going to change next month since “Pokemon Go” has opened applications for Pokestops and Gyms to small and medium businesses. As soon as they get their approval, these businesses will have their Gyms and Pokestops upgraded to Sponsored. What could businesses benefit from doing this?

Pokemon Go
Pokemon Go's Adventure Sync will track users steps in the background. Gabriel Rossi/LatinContent/Getty Images

Sponsored locations in “Pokemon Go’ have a slightly different set of perks compared to non-sponsored sites. For instance, sponsored “Pokemon Go’ Gyms are usually locations used for EX Raids. In the game’s lingo, it simply means battling in these locations could give players a ticket to a bigger and worse invite-only boss battle in the coming weeks.

“Pokemon Go” Sponsored Pokéstop or Gym also provides unique Field Research Tasks. Additionally, sponsored locations can upload promo materials and details for their business that “Pokemon Go” players can see every time they interact with Gym or Pokestop. Moreover, sponsored locations can set up lures and schedule mini-games at particular times to encourage additional foot traffic.

Aside from those, sponsored locations could also host special “Pokemon Go” Raid hours once a month. Niantic is currently accepting applications exclusive for US businesses only. In the future, this will certainly expand to other regions all over the world. Interested small and medium businesses can apply for Early Access Beta Sponsorship that will start in December.

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