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Skillz Pays Out $10 Million in eSports Prizes

By Skillz on June 5, 2015 in Press Releases

Skillz now accounts for approximately 30% of all eSports prizes as mobile has become an important driver of the industry’s growth

Skillz, the worldwide leader in mobile eSports, announced today that its tournament platform has paid out over $10 million in cash prizes, and now accounts for approximately 30% of all eSports earnings according to data from eSportsEarnings.com. The company has added 4 million new registered users over the last 12 months and now hosts over 150,000 tournaments per day for players in over 180 countries.

Since launching, Skillz has hosted over 40 million mobile eSports tournaments and the company’s growth is accelerating rapidly. Skillz paid out its first million dollars in prizes eight months after launching. The company paid out its second million in prizes four months later. Since the start of 2015, Skillz has paid over $7 million in additional prizes and today pays out $1 million every two weeks.

Partnered with over 1,100 game studios, Skillz facilitates every kind of multiplayer competition including head-to-head, turn based, unlimited entry, freerolls and more. This diversity has helped propel the popularity of the platform with a broad demographic of gamers. Skillz reports that its player base is 45% women, and over 40% of its players are over age 35.

Recently, Skillz introduced real-time encoding and streaming technology that allows players to broadcast eSports action from any Skillz-enabled game to any content-sharing website. This streaming technology is helping game developers acquire new players, build spectator audiences and retain users.

“It took 50 years from when football was invented in 1869 until the NFL was formed. As we approach the 50th birthday of games like Pong, we’re seeing video games follow the same timeline to becoming major sports,” said Andrew Paradise, CEO of Skillz. “Given the growth rate, eSports will soon eclipse many traditional sports in terms of audience participation, viewership and associated prizing.”

About Skillz

Skillz is the worldwide leader in mobile eSports. The company believes in making mobile games more fun and competitive for players while making game creation more lucrative for developers. Skillz eSports tournaments create direct revenue for game developers while enhancing rather than interrupting the gamer experience. Founded in 2012, Skillz has offices in San Francisco and Boston, and the company has raised $13.3M in funding led by Atlas Venture. To learn more, visit www.skillz.com.

Skillz Brings Live Streaming and Instant Replays to Mobile eSports

By Skillz on May 14, 2015 in Press Releases

Players will be able to broadcast live gameplay and instant replays from all Skillz games to content-sharing websites like Twitch, Azubu and YouTube.

Skillz, the worldwide leader in mobile eSports, today unveiled its real-time encoding and streaming technology that allows players to broadcast eSports action from any Skillz-enabled game to any content-sharing website. Bundled into the free Skillz software development kit (SDK), live gameplay streaming will help game developers acquire new players while engaging and retaining their existing audiences.

The Skillz streaming technology is the first to enable live, over-the-air streaming for games built in any development framework, including popular engines like Unity, Marmalade, OpenGL, UIKit and Cocos2d. While other technologies are limited to specific game engines and only enable post-game sharing, Skillz works with any game to transmit real-time gameplay from eSports competitors around the world.

Just as televised competition and live web streaming have become an integral part of popular sports like baseball, basketball, and football, live streaming and video replays are essential functionality for eSports. In 2014, eSports viewership rose over 88%, reaching 134 million people according to SuperData Research. Frank N. Magid Associates, a leading research analyst firm, predicts that the cash competition market in electronic sports will surpass $9 billion in revenue by 2017.

“As video games evolve into the next generation of sports, mobile is leading the way,” said Andrew Paradise, Founder and CEO of Skillz. “If Twitch, YouTube and Azubu are the next ESPN, NBC and FOX, Skillz is creating the next NFL, NBA and MLB by enabling game developers to host eSports competitions in any mobile game.”

Founded in 2012, Skillz provides mobile developers with a full-service eSports tournament platform that can be integrated into any mobile game in under one hour. The platform, which has been integrated into over 800 games to-date, allows players in 150 countries to compete for cash or virtual currency. The company currently hosts over 150,000 tournaments per day and pays out more than $50,000 daily in cash prizes.

Players interested in competing can visit skillz.com.

Developers interested in implementing the Skillz SDK can visit: developers.skillz.com/developer/.

Want to become a Skillz affiliate? Please visit: http://skillz.com/affiliates/

For press materials, please visit: skillz.com/presskit

About Skillz

Skillz is the worldwide leader in mobile eSports. The company believes in making mobile games more fun and competitive for players while making game creation more lucrative for developers. Skillz eSports tournaments create direct revenue for game developers while enhancing rather than interrupting the gamer experience. Founded in 2012, Skillz has offices in San Francisco and Boston, and the company has raised $13.3M in funding led by Atlas Venture. To learn more, visit www.skillz.com.

Skillz Raises $5.5 Million in Series A Funding

By Skillz on June 19, 2013 in Press Releases

Skillz is Expanding to Support a Growing User Base and New Developer Partners

Skillz, the leader in mobile skill-gaming, today announced a $5.5 million Series A round of financing led by Atlas Venture. The funding will allow Skillz to grow its marketing and customer service teams, supporting over one million consumers who have downloaded the Skillz tournament platform since the company’s launch in April. Skillz will also grow its developer relations team as additional studios continue to integrate cash competitions into their skill-based mobile games.

“We’re expanding rapidly based on the success of our early developer partners,” said Andrew Paradise, CEO and founder of Skillz. “We always knew cash tournaments would significantly boost revenue for mobile games, but developers have been impressed by how much Skillz has increased retention of their hard-earned players.”

With 80% of mobile gaming revenue going to just 20 developers in 2012, monetization has proven to be one of the most pressing challenges in an otherwise growing industry. Traditional tools like advertising and in-app purchases have generated revenue for developers, but often at the expense of the gamer experience.

“Cash tournaments are a perfect fit for mobile games because they tap into the intrinsic competitiveness of gamers,” said Jeff Fagnan, Partner at Atlas Venture. “By enabling these competitions in many of today’s most popular games, Skillz is transforming an industry while creating a better ecosystem for both gamers and developers.”

In skill-based games, a player’s ability rather than luck, determines the outcome. This distinction makes betting in skill-based games legal across 37 states for 75% of the American population.

Players interested in competing can find a full list of Skillz-powered games at: www.skillz.com

Developers interested in implementing Skillz tournaments can visit: www.skillz.com/developers

About Skillz
Skillz is the world’s first cash and virtual currency tournament platform for skill-based mobile games. Skillz believes in making mobile games more fun for players while making game creation more lucrative for developers. Founded in March 2012, the company has offices in San Francisco and Boston. Skillz has raised $6.8M in funding from Atlas Venture and Nextview Ventures and launched its proprietary platform in April 2013. To learn more, visit www.skillz.com/corporate.

Skillz Introduces Real-Money Mobile Gaming in the U.S.

By Skillz on April 30, 2013 in Press Releases

Tournament Platform’s Beta Launch Enables Cash Competitions in Skill-Based Games

Playing mobile games for cash is now a reality with Skillz, the world’s only multiplayer tournament platform for skill-based mobile games. Skillz enables game developers to host both cash and free multiplayer tournaments inside their mobile games. Skillz represents a brand new monetization opportunity for developers, making game development more profitable and gaming more fun.

The Skillz open beta is available initially for the Android platform and will allow game developers of skill-based titles to host cash competitions in 36 U.S. states, while facilitating free and virtual currency tournaments worldwide.

“While mobile gaming continues to boom, game developers need innovative, yet complementary ways to monetize their content. 80% of mobile games revenue went to the top twenty development studios last year,” said Andrew Paradise, CEO and founder of Skillz. “Tournaments take mobile gaming to the next level by enhancing gameplay, making it more social and fun as players compete against each other. For developers, competitions translate into longer sessions, better user retention and increased revenue.”

Developers using the Skillz platform are already seeing results. Joe Hanson, founder of Rocketmind, said,  “Since integrating Skillz, we’re seeing increased engagement from our users in Big Sport Fishing. We’ve found that players who enter Skillz competitions play three times longer than their peers.”

A New Monetization Solution

With Skillz, studios of all sizes can drive revenue while enriching gameplay. Using the Skillz SDK, developers collect income directly from every cash tournament, while increasing ad views and in-app purchases through virtual currency competitions that boost player engagement.

Skillz is launching with ten game studios, each releasing one Android title initially. The available games span a range of genres including sports, puzzle, arcade and more.

• GnarBike Trials (Gnarly Games)
• Bubble Explode (Spooky House Studios)
• Big Sport Fishing 3D Lite (Rocketmind)
• SushiChop (Rogue Rocket)
• Mini Golf Star: Putt Putt Game (DMW Design Group)
• International Boxing Champions (Coeus Creative)
• Bubble Shooter (Ilyon Dynamics)
• Apache Strike: Multiplayer Fun (The Game Boss/Geniteam Solutions)
• King of Defense (WSW)
• 3D Cave Runner (Skillz)

In these titles, players can enter cash tournaments for as little as $0.25, competing to win real money. Free competitions in these games are available worldwide.

Players interested in competing can visit: www.skillz.com

Developers interested in Skillz tournaments can visit: www.skillz.com/developers

Anyone interested in learning more about the Skillz corporation can visit: www.skillz.com/corporate

To see Skillz in action, check out the video at: http://youtu.be/SlyP8tYokYQ

To download the press kit, visit: http://skillz.com/corporate/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Skillz-Press-Kit-Launch.zip

About Skillz

Skillz is the world’s first and only cash and virtual currency tournament platform for skill-based mobile games. Skillz believes in making mobile games more fun for players while making game creation more lucrative for developers. Founded in March 2012, the company has offices in San Francisco and Boston. Skillz announced $1.3M in seed capital from Atlas Venture, Nextview Ventures and angel investors in November 2012. To learn more, visit www.skillz.com.