888's Dragonfish Strikes E-Payment Deal With Linden Lab's Virtual World

The online gaming company 888 Holding said its B2B division Dragonfish has signed an e-payments deal with Linden Lab, the company which created the metaverse Second Life.
Linden Lab’s Second Life (SL) is a virtual world launched on June 23, 2003 where  users, called Residents, can explore, socialise, interact and create and trade virtual property and services with each other through avatars. SecondLife has become a phenomenon worldwide, generating around $35 million of business every month, and the deal struck  will see Dragonfish provide electronic payments, fraud and customer support management services to the company which predicts $0.5billion of business this year alone.
Mark Kingdon, the CEO of Linden Lab, said of today’s agreement: “Second Life Residents log into the virtual world from nearly every country around the globe and participate in a virtual economy that will exceed USD500 million this year.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 United States.”
Dragonfish has been instrumental in propping up 888 Holding’s recent quarterly results, and managed to post a 15% year on year increase in revenue in Q3 when the company’s overall revenue saw a decline of 10%. This was mostly due to a series of recent deals struck by Dragonfish, with big businesses, including Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment and South Africa’s Tsongo Sun Gaming group, as well as being involved in launching poker and gaming in the Balkans.
Commenting on the latest deal, Gabi Campos, managing director of Dragonfish, said: “Today’s agreement extends our offer of Total Gaming Services into Total Payment Services and highlights the increasingly diverse nature and strength of Dragonfish’s operations. We have many gaming partners interested in our e-Payment solutions but 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.”