Dragonfish breaks new ground with Second Life retail game tie
Dragonfish, 888's business-to-business (B2B) arm, has signed an e-payments deal with Linden Lab, the creator of the virtual world Second Life that the company says is on track to generate revenue of more than US$0.5bn this year.
DRAGONFISH, 888’S BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS (B2B) arm, has signed an e-payments deal with Linden Lab, the creator of the virtual world Second Life.
Launched in 2003, Second Life is an ‘avatar’ game in which players use real money to purchase an internal currency, the Linden dollar, which can be used to buy, sell, rent or trade land, goods and services with other users; which the business predicted will generate more than US$0.5bn this year.
Dragonfish will provide Second Life with e-payments, fraud and customer support management services for the largest user-generated virtual goods economy in the world, which to date has accounted for more than US$1bn in user-to-user transactions.
Dragonfish chief executive Gabi Campos said: “This is a giant step beyond our core operations into the retail environment. It’s an excellent complementary business for Dragonfish which will provide incremental revenue.”
The company’s B2B arm has been trading for some time, but was officially launched as the standalone Dragonfish business in March this year.
Formed as a hedge against downturns in business-to-consumer (B2C), it recently saved 888 from a major slide in third quarter revenue, as it did at the half-year stage, and has signed a string of deals in the last quarter alone including launching poker and casino in the Balkans, signing a deal with South Africa’s Tsogo Sun Gaming Group and a landmark deal with Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment, the new egaming arm of US casino giant Harrah’s.
Linden Lab chief executive Mark Kingdon said: “Dragonfish has a strong track record in unlocking new markets through its unique and secure payment processing solutions, and as Second Life continues to grow internationally, we’re pleased to work with them to provide easy and secure payment options for our users outside the US.”
In other recent moves into the retail games sector, in September Bwin signed a deal with massive multiplayer online game developer UnitedGames.
Dragonfish chief executive Gabi Campos will be speaking at the ‘Any Questions’ session of EGR Live, eGaming Review‘s free two-day conference and exhibition for operators this month.