Skillz Brings Live Streaming and Instant Replays to Mobile eSports

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.