Pokemon Go mania: Woman leaves job, becomes full-time player

A 26-year-old woman in the UK has quit her teaching job to become Britain’s first full-time Pokemon Go player as she believes there is a lot of money to be made from the widely popular location-based augmented reality game.

Pokemon obsessed Sophia Pedrazza, from High Barnet north London, plans to cash in on the craze by hitting the streets to collect virtual characters and then sell her accounts on eBay.

Pokemon Go masters are already flipping their accounts for thousands of pounds on eBay to players who prefer to buy the Pokemon instead of catching them all.

“I downloaded it and immediately realised there is money to be made. If you can get to a decent level you can sell it on to people on ebay,” said Pedrazza, who earned up to 2,000 pounds a month giving private lessons to kids in maths, English and music.

“I heard accounts were being sold and I looked on eBay and some accounts at level 20 and above were going for a 1,000 pounds and level 15 bids were about 100-200 pounds. If you put the time in you can get to level 15 after a day or two,” Pedrazza told ‘The Sun’.

Pedrazza said she was planning to buy multiple phones to boost her productivity and catch Pokemon on multiple accounts.

“Some days I play it for 18 hours a day because you can play all the time even when you’re out with your friends in bars and clubs. My mum thinks I’m mad but she’s coming round to the idea. I’m going to do it for as long as it makes money,” she said.

“It’s a big craze at the moment and there’s money to be made but if it slows down I can always go back to teaching,” she added. Some gamers have made over 7,000 pounds by selling their accounts online. One bidding war recently stopped at 7,300 pounds.

Earlier, a 24-year-old New Zealand barman Tom Currie quit his job to become a full-time player. He said he was loving his new career but his parents were “a little bit baffled”.