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March 13, 2024

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Vancouver’s YDreams (YD.V) to build Arkave VR arena in Florida trampoline park

A Vancouver-based firm is bringing its VR tech to a Florida trampoline park.

Virtual reality company YDreams (YD.V) signed a deal Dec. 10 with Launch Trampoline Park (LTP) to bring its VR tech, Arkave arena, to the park. This is YD’s second Arkave VR arena in the US.

“We are very excited to receive an Arkave arena in our park. Among many other VR attractions being shown, Arkave got our attention due to its real free-roaming structure,” said Jonas Roter, owner of LTP. “The project was able to become a reality thanks to the dynamic YDreams team.”

Daniel Japiassu, YD’s CEO, said he was thrilled to sign a deal with LTP. “We had an instant connection with the owners and had a great time playing Arkave.”

Launch Trampoline Park, located in Doral Fla.—a suburb next to Miami International Airport, also offers extreme dodgeball, a giant airbag, tumble tracks, basketball, battle beam, slack line and a large arcade games selection.

Arkave arena

Here is a short video on YDreams’s Arkave arena:

Arkave’s ‘arenas’ are sprawling videogame centres. These centres are divided into subsections, with each dedicated to a different game. One such arena in Brazil spans 3,230-square-feet and can accommodate 14 different players at once.

According to a press release from YDreams, there is hope the relationship with Launch Trampoline Parks can expand in 2019.

When we created this product we had in mind entrepreneurs that were looking to bring a great new attraction to their business. Launch Trampoline Park has a very innovative franchise business model that is a great fit with our product. We hope this is just the first of many arenas with the Launch family.

If it is the first of many, 2019 may prove to be a lucrative year for YD. Launch Trampoline Park has 19 franchises in the 14 US states. They also plan to open another 24 parks in 2019. If YD can jump onto Launch’s franchise train, that’s a pool of 40-plus parks for potential Arkave arenas.

And location-based VR arenas/places/VRcades (and Arkaves), as entertainment destinations, are wildly underrepresented in North America. According to TechinAsia, China has 12,000 VRcades. There are only 500 more across Asia and under 1,000 in North America.

Andretti indoor Arkave

Florida’s Launch Trampoline Park is YD’s second Arkave VR arena deal. In November, YD announced they signed a deal to open a VR arena with Andretti Indoor Karting & Games. Located in Marietta, Ga., Andretti Karting has a 100,000-square-foot facility with high-speed superkarts, multi-level European-style tracks, state-of-the-art arcade, XD motion theatre, and VR racing simulators.

YDreams stock price over the last year. Courtesy StockCharts.

“The early reactions to Arkave VR from both hard-core gamers and casual gamers has been tremendous and we continue to make necessary modifications to the platform,” Francisco Chaves, head of Arkave VR, said in a press release. “The U.S. market offers a wide range of opportunities for Arkave VR, and our relationship with Andretti is the first step on this journey.”

YDreams is one of the few companies with a first-mover advantage in the nascent VR industry. If they can get their end right, which it seems they have done (see Chris Parry’s YD analysis here), and if franchisees can sell Arkaves to a VR-hungy public, then thousands of Arkave arenas could be on the way for North Americans.

Read an Equity Guru exclusive interview with YDreams CEO Daniel Japiassu.

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