Today marks the official launch of WorldGaming, an online community where you can win real money for beating others at some of your favorite games. Once registered you can put money on your account and then either issue or accept challenges to games on the Xbox 360 and PS3. I know wagering with your money can make people nervous but WorldGaming works with the respective online services to make sure people don’t try to cheat you out of your righfully won money. Once you have entered and completed a challenge or tournament the system receives notification directly from the game so there is a guarantee that you will receive the money if you were on the winning end of said contest. The list of available games is a little short at launch but they are currently working on adding many of yours, and my, favorite titles to let you put your money where your mouth is. The site works great with pre-planned tournaments or setting up “pick-up” games with those that are currently on the site. With a simple m

I was lucky enough to be able to take this system for a spin while out at GDC09 and I will say that within minutes of successfully beating somebody in a shootout in NHL 09 a notification was received on the site and the account was credited with the money I had won. I strongly encourage every person (18 and over) to sign up and try at least one challenge. There’s even more incentive because every 100th person to register will get a free $50 deposit bonus in their account to start taking on challengers. At the point the 10,000th person registers the bonuses stop as that lucky person wins the “Ultimate Gamer Gear Package:”

• Choice of either a custom WorldGaming PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360
• $250 gift certificate from GameStop (www.gamestop.com)
• $100 deposit bonus into their WorldGaming.com account

Part of the fun kicks off this weekend with a 32-person (1v1) ‘Halo 3′ tournament where entry is only $5. While losing in the first round does not get you any return simply making it to the second round will get you at least $16.25 back.

While I’m personally excited to get some use out of WorldGaming and try to win some money, what do you all think of a service like this? Something you’ll try or maybe even be interested in a tournament against other 360Sync readers & staff?

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