An Island entrepreneur has launched a new virtual gaming site.

Now 22-year-old Damien Furbert is aiming to carve out a slice of the multimillion dollar global industry.

And he is looking for investors and sponsors for his enterprise JoystickPlay.

Mr Furbert — a keen gamer — set up the firm, which hosts online gaming tournaments for a range of popular consoles, last month.

He said: “It’s basically an online sports company. What it does is players go on to it and sign up to compete for cash prizes in tournaments.

“My plan is to host live staged tournaments here in Bermuda, maybe in the summer.”

Mr Furbert, who has set up his own website, has already created his own international football online tournament.

Gamers can sign up through the website and can compete with the chance of a cash prize for the victors.

Mr Furbert added: “I’ve always been a game enthusiast and one day I woke up and said ‘I’m going to make a website’.”

He said that, in addition to JoystickPlay.com, he also owned JoystickPlay.co.uk and had ambitions to expand internationally.

But he added: “Before I do that, I want to establish myself in Bermuda.”

And he said he would also be providing an online service selling laptops video games and associated technology.

Mr Furbert, who lives in Hamilton Parish, added: “It’s a multimillion-dollar industry — some gamers are sponsored as professionals by companies like Sony and Microsoft, big companies, just to compete in tournaments and they’re regarded as professional athletes.”

Mr Furbert added that popular games for competition included football-themed tournaments and war games Call of Duty and Battlefield.

He said: “What I need is funding and as much support as I can get, especially when it comes to live staged tournaments — I would need a sponsor for that.

“That would be hosted on a beach in Bermuda and have cubicles with gaming consoles with entrants competing for cash prizes.”

Mr Furbert said bookmakers and others involved in hi-tech industries would be ideal as investors and sponsors for his business.

Mr Furbert can be contacted at damien@joystickplay.com and the website can be found at www.JoystickPlay.com.