Obopay is launching a new mobile payment service that links a consumer’s credit card to their wireless number, with a target on the gaming social networking market.

The company said that online merchants will receive better revenue opportunities with its new service. Once consumers pay in-game with their credit or debit card, it will be linked to their mobile device.

“We are a mobile payment service and expanded our product offering for online payments for people using to make mobile payments for goods or services,” said David Schwartz, head of corporate and product marketing at Obopay, Redwood City, CA.

Obopay is a mobile payments service in the United States that lets consumers get, send and spend money on their wireless device. The company already has partnerships with other major industry players such as Nokia, AT&T, Verizon Wireless and MasterCard.

With today’s announcement, Obopay’s mobile services are extended to payments for online games and digital goods purchases.

Obopay said that consumers can now quickly make purchases in-game with a credit or debit card and returning consumers can use their mobile number and a PIN of their choosing to pay without having to disrupt the game experience or leave the application. 

For example, when playing a game on Facebook, players would not need to be redirected to another site to make payments for virtual goods or other services.

Obopay claims that because users can stay in the game while paying, its services offer improved economics and increased conversion rates for merchants because consumers will stay in the game longer.

Merchants will also receive better revenue opportunities than other alternative carrier billing options, according to Obopay. The company said that it does not require merchants to give up a large part of their revenue like other payment providers and merchants can receive money from transactions faster.

Obopay recently partnered with Nokia to launch a mobile service called “Nokia Money.”

Powered by the Obopay platform, Nokia hopes to put mobile banking in the hands of millions of consumers. Nokia Money can be accessed 24-hours a day from any location (see story).

Mr. Schwartz said that consumers will benefit from uninterrupted game play, something the target demographic of mobile youth, 18-35-year-olds, covet.

“Our initial target is the gaming sector to give an easy check-out experience,” Mr. Schwartz said. “We went after that market because we think it’s a rapidly growing market for mobile payments and the social gaming demographic has a synergy with our mobile payments demographic, so we wanted to capitalize where the users are.

“We’re really excited to be in this space and think it’s a huge market take advantage of,” he said.