De-synchronized clocks in preemption games with risky prospects

► We consider an optimal timing decision problem with de-synchronized clocks. ► The agent trades waiting for information against a loss in first-mover advantage. ► An increase in the number of players leads to a non-monotonic strategic response. ► We examine the case when more players decrease the degree of clock synchronization. ► We identify the role of the discreteness of the information acquisition process.