• Game Daily Biz, Thursday, February 22, 2007 11 AM

If there are two omnipresent elements in media, it's sports and advertising. These elements converge as much as possible. It follows that marketers should carve out new opportunities in new media.

Even in the world of video games, one such medium, sports publishers have taken a lead in selling ads. It's only a matter of time before the genre moves online, becoming massively multiplayer, like the virtual worlds of Second Life and World of Warcraft.

In-game ad providers like Double Fusion are banking on that convergence. The game "Ultimate Baseball Online" from publisher Netamin is one such example. Double Fusion recently became a seller of in-game advertising on the new MMOG. The deal allows Netamin to publish the game for free. It also goes far beyond billboard advertising.

Not only does DF plan to sponsor players, it plans to make sponsorships one of the goals for players. Who wouldn't want to become a baseball star of Derek Jeter's caliber being offered lucrative sponsorships from national brand CPG advertisers? In such an environment, virtual baseball becomes like real baseball: free, but thoroughly entrenched in a tradition of advertising.

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