World Gaming Offers Multiplayer Match Wagering
As online multiplayer gaming continues to thrive, more and more companies are trying to figure out ways to leverage the growing trend. WorldGaming.com is planning to add cash to the mix by allowing gamers to challenge one another to multiplayer matches and make wagers as well.
WorldGaming.com works like this: gamers can register on the site for free and set up a profile. Once you're signed in, you can choose from several console titles on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation3, Xbox and Xbox 360 (Halo 3, Resistance: Fall of Man, MotorStorm, and recent FIFA Soccer, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and Madden NFL editions, to name a few). Players can then select a game and challenge another member to a multiplayer match. The trick is players can bet one another for money.
A player, for example, can challenge a friend on WorldGaming.com to a match of Madden NFL 2008 for $50. WorldGaming.com takes a small fee (10 percent of the wager, to be exact) and then tracks the result of match and afterward deposit the money in the winner's account. Registered members can wager money and add to their WorldGaming.com accounts using a variety of major credit cards as well as PayPal. The minimum bet is $5, and the maximum fee the company will charge is $25 per match.
William Levy, president and co-founder of WorldGaming.com, said because online multiplayer gaming is a skill game rather than a chance game, it's not considered gambling in the eyes of the law. The only restriction is that registered users must be 18 or older. In addition, WorldGaming.com has a patent-pending technology called "game validator" that tracks the results of each match played on Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network and then upload the information to the company's server for verification.
Levy says he and co-founder Zach Zeldin came up with the idea for WorldGaming on New Year's Day in 2006. "We were hung over from New Year's Eve, eating pizza and playing video games. We were playing a Madden tournament for $100 a player," Levy said. At the same time, some other friends were playing online poker. Levy and Zeldin had the idea to combine online gaming with the competitive wagering of poker. Over the next year, the two honed the idea and added a social networking component to the plan.
WorldGaming, therefore, is designed to combine online multiplayer gaming, online wagering and social networking. The site include features like game lobbies, message boards, pop-up invite windows and member profile pages with player stats, earnings and scheduled matches. WorldGaming is currently in an internal beta but plans on launching a public beta by the end of the month. To promote the site, the company will host 32-player and 64-player tournaments for games like Halo 3 and FIFA Soccer 2008, with up to $50,000 in cash prizes.
Levy said that non-tournament matches are limited to one-on-one, but that WorldGaming plans on having 4 to 6 player matches later this year. The company is also looking at other multiplayer games for the site, including Grand Theft Auto IV. Unfortunately, games like Guitar Hero that have no public score results can't be used for WorldGaming.com matches. The company also looked at including PC games but determined the platform had too many challenges. "There are so many variables with the PC like network speed, lag, hardware advantages and other things that we decided not to pursue it," Levy said.
Gamers can sign up on WorldGaming.com for the upcoming open beta, which is schedule to launch at the end of this month.
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