Cover Alvin Lam, the founder of startup Digital Games Lab. (Photo: Courtesy of Digital Games Lab)
Alvin Lam, the founder of startup Digital Games Lab. (Photo: Courtesy of Digital Games Lab)
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DarleyGo, from Hong Kong start-up Digital Games Lab, lets aspiring racehorse owners realise their dreams in the virtual world
New blockchain game DarleyGo makes it possible for anyone to be a virtual racehorse owner—and they can even make money from their hobby. DarleyGo allows people to buy, own, race, breed and sell virtual horses, using NFTs to give players’ investments value in the physical world, not just within the game. It’s the brainchild of startup Digital Games Lab, whose founder Alvin Lam is one of the few people with a deep personal and professional knowledge of the worlds of both horse racing and blockchain technology.
“What does it mean to make money in a traditional game?” Lam says. “It’s worth nothing in the real world. NFT games solve one of the biggest problems with online games: you spend hundreds of hours to get something that’s not really worth anything. With NFTs, you can turn them into real digital assets. You can sell them.”
Above New blockchain game, DarleyGo (Photo: Courtesy of Digital Games Lab)
New blockchain game, DarleyGo (Photo: Courtesy of Digital Games Lab)
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Lam worked in supply chain management until 2018, when a friend invited him to join a blockchain start-up in Singapore. After that was sold, he started a racehorse trading company with his British business partner Jamie Piggott. Then he started to think about how he could combine his two areas of expertise. He realised that many of the common features of horse racing games, such as racing and trading, could be transformed with the use of blockchain technology.
DarleyGo maps closely to the economics of the real-world equestrian business. So, while the first three finishers in each race are rewarded with tokens, “the part that makes the most money for the owner is breeding rather than racing”, says Lam, with players able to breed their horses within their own virtual stables or with horses owned by other players.
Above Alvin Lam, the founder of Hong Kong based startup Digital Games Lab. (Photo: Courtesy of Digital Games Lab)
Alvin Lam, the founder of Hong Kong based startup Digital Games Lab. (Photo: Courtesy of Digital Games Lab)
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The company behind it is based in Hong Kong, Lam’s home city and one with a proud horse racing tradition. He says it’s also an excellent place to base a start-up, largely because of its deep talent pool.
The game is being rolled out in phases as it is developed, but it made an auspicious public debut in January when it sold its first batch of virtual horses: 3,800 of them, all of which sold within seconds. With the full version of the game expected to launch within the next few months, Lam says most owners are hanging onto their horses rather than selling them, expecting great things from the game.
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