SU Holdings is entering the $50 billion 'social casino' market through equity investment in a metaverse game specialist company as part of its business diversification. To this end, it invested 12 billion KRW in the blockchain-based online social casino company UtopiaGames, securing a 20% stake.
An SU Holdings official stated, "Due to concerns about gambling addiction, game rating classification is not conducted, making full-scale service impossible domestically; however, social casinos from Korean game companies are gaining significant popularity overseas." Samsung Securities recently forecasted in a report that the performance of the social casino company acquired by DoubleU Games will have a considerable impact on DoubleU Games' revenue and profit growth.
DoubleU Games recorded sales exceeding 100 billion KRW in the first half of this year through casino games. Wemade and Neowiz are also successively launching blockchain-based casino game services. According to a July report by MarketsandMarkets, the social casino market size is estimated at $50 billion and is expected to grow to $60 billion by 2025.
The social casino company invested in by SU Holdings is also preparing for a global market-targeted platform service. Its strength lies particularly in services through metaverse spaces. UtopiaGames is preparing to launch a global platform service called Vegastopia.
'Vegastopia' is an online casino platform that builds hotel casinos by country within the metaverse space, providing an environment similar to actual offline settings. It features various psychological battles such as bluffing through 3D avatars, offering game fun and visual appeal based on motion graphic actions identical to real movements.
A UtopiaGames official said, "We solved the trust issues of online gambling with data tampering prevention and ultra-fast blockchain technology. This fundamentally blocked card tampering by game users, and all players participating in the game can mutually verify each moment, enhancing trustworthiness." The company plans to expand the casino game platform ecosystem by onboarding various social casino companies and major casino operators into the Meta World.
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