Skillz (company)

Skillz is an online mobile multiplayer competition platform that is integrated into a number of iOS and Android games.[1][2] Players use it to compete in competitions against other players across the world.[3]

Skillz
TypePublic
Launch dateMarch 2012
Platform(s)iOS and Android
StatusActive
Websiteskillz.com

History

Skillz was founded in 2012 by Andrew Paradise and Casey Chafkin in Boston,[4][5] though the company's headquarters is now located in San Francisco.[6]

Through different rounds of funding, Skillz has raised $53 million from venture capitalists including Liberty Global, Telstra, Accomplice, Wildcat Capital, as well as the owners of the New England Patriots, Milwaukee Bucks, New York Mets, and Sacramento Kings.[7][8][9]

By June 2015, Skillz had launched 550 games and partnered with 1,100 game studios.[1] In December 2017, Skillz's growth rate was 50,000%.[10] In the same year, Skillz hired its one hundredth full-time employee.[11] As of September 2017, 33% of Skillz's engineering team were women.[12]

Software

Developers are able to use the Skillz platform to turn a mobile game into an eSport.[13][14] Skillz currently has 18 million users registered on the platform and around 13,000 developer partners.[15][2] As such, Skillz has hosted over 800 million tournaments.[16] On a daily basis, Skillz runs around two million tournaments per day, for games such as Solitaire Cube, Bubble Shooter, and Dominoes.[17][3] Of its users, roughly half are men and half are women, with respect to demographics.[18] Players are matched with one another based on their skills.[3][19] The Skillz platform is also able to "generate gameplay clips and highlights",[20] allowing for the recording and broadcasting all of its gameplay.[21]

Games

There are games that have the Skillz multiplayer platform integrated onto them. Tether Studios is one such developer of Skillz games, which used the Skillz platform to add a cash-rewarded competition element to their Solitaire Cube game, leading to increased player retention.[22][23] Another game that uses Skillz is Outplay's Bubble Shooter League.[24]

References
  1. Heitner, Darren (July 25, 2015). "The Development Of eSports Arenas Makes Economic Sense". Forbes. Skillz has partnered with more than 1,100 game studios, helped launch roughly 550 games (about 100 of which are running cash competitions), hosts over 150,000 daily tournaments across over 180 countries and has paid out in excess of $13 million to players.
  2. Jordan, Jon; Editor, Contributing (April 17, 2018). "Patents, platforms and IPO: How mobile-first esports platform Skillz is planning for bigger things". The Esports Observer. Launched in 2012 and since funded to the tune of $53 million, over 13,000 mobile game developers have integrated the platform into their games, enabling players to wager small amounts of cash on the outcome of head-to-head battles and tournaments.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  3. Novy-Williams, Eben (April 12, 2018). "Esports On Your Phone Are Worth Real Money". Bloomberg Businessweek. Skillz says it matches players based on ability. Cash prizes are paid via check or PayPal, and occasionally a new car or paid vacation is up for grabs. There are also free contests without cash-value prizes.
  4. Jordan, Jon (September 18, 2018). "How real-money competition platform Skillz is riding the wave of mobile esports for all". Pocket Gamer. "We’re seeing the benefit of the network effect for both players and developers," comments co-founder and COO Casey Chafkin.
  5. Huang, Gregory T. (April 30, 2013). "Xconomy: Stealthy No More, Skillz Brings Cash Tournaments to Mobile Games". Xconomy. Andrew Paradise is at it again. Scarcely a year after confirming he’d sold his last company, AisleBuyer, to Intuit, the Boston-area entrepreneur and angel investor is taking his latest company out of stealth mode. Skillz (fka Lookout Gaming), which has offices in Boston and San Francisco, is trying to make a splash in the mobile gaming world by enabling game developers to host tournaments in which players compete for cash or virtual currency.
  6. Takahashi, Dean (September 18, 2018). "Skillz hits $400 million revenue run rate with mobile esports platform". VentureBeat. Founded in 2012, Skillz is headquartered in San Francisco and backed by leading venture capitalists as well as the owners of the New England Patriots, Milwaukee Bucks, New York Mets and Sacramento Kings. Skillz raised $25 million in December 2017.
  7. Heitner, Darren (December 13, 2017). "Mobile Esports Leader Raises $25 Million Series C Round And Aspires To Go Public". Forbes. Mobile esports leader Skillz is today announcing a Series C funding round. Skillz has previously raised more than $28 million prior to the Series C round, which included receipt of money from the owners of the New England Patriots, New York Mets and Milwaukee Bucks. Its Series B round from September 2015 resulted in $15 million raised, with Wildcat Capital Management leading the effort. The Series C funding round actually closed in the Summer, but Skillz has kept the raise a secret. The new round is in the amount of $25 million, bringing the total amount of money raised since inception to roughly $53 million. Leading the Series C round is Liberty Global LBTYA +0%, the largest international cable company, and Telstra , an Australian telecommunications and media company. Also involved in the round is Andy Miller, a co-owner of the Sacramento Kings and Chairman/co-owner of NRG eSports.
  8. Heitner, Darren (October 15, 2015). "The Business Of eSports Is On Pace To Explode". Forbes. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has invested in eSports when he joined a Series A round of financing for eSports betting platform Unikrn. He was recently joined by other professional sports team owners in Marc Lasry (co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks) and Robert Kraft (through The Kraft Group -- owners of the New England Patriots), together investing in eSports tournament curator Skillz.
  9. Morganteen, Jeff (June 2, 2017). "Five must-watch videos: Amazon to $1,000 and Trump's climate decision". CNBC. Skillz has quietly become one of the biggest companies in the fledgling mobile esports industry. It awarded $50 million to players in 2016, and it raised about $28 million from venture firms, including Sequoia Capital and The Kraft Group, founded by Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots.
  10. Heitner, Darren (December 13, 2017). "Mobile Esports Leader Raises $25 Million Series C Round And Aspires To Go Public". Forbes. Earlier this year, Skillz was named to the top spot on the Inc. 5000 list, which tracks the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. The company's three-year growth rate is over 50,000%.
  11. Heitner, Darren (December 13, 2017). "Mobile Esports Leader Raises $25 Million Series C Round and Aspires to Go Public". Inc.
  12. Whitford, David (September 1, 2017). "How America's Fastest-Growing Company Turned Video Games Into a $54 Million Cash Cow". Inc.
  13. Mitchell, Ferguson (April 17, 2018). "Breakdown of the Mobile Esports Scene". The Esports Observer. Retrieved April 6, 2019. Any skill game can be turned into an esports through the integration of platforms like Skillz.
  14. Heitner, Darren (October 19, 2016). "Mobile Esports Company Reports $50 Million Run Rate". Forbes. This platform has allowed Skillz to become the esports provider for over 1,600 game studios, and the company predicts that it will host over 70 million tournaments in 2016 (three times more than hosted last year).
  15. Pei, Annie (November 10, 2018). "Skillz hands out prize money to gamers: What that means for esports". CNBC. If you're one of the 18 million users registered on Skillz, chances are that on any given day, you're collecting winnings from an electronic sports (esports) prize pool totaling over half a million dollars.
  16. Gottsegen, Gordon (October 11, 2018). "A bigger phone could help you win that esports tournament". CNET. Mobile esports company Skillz announced today that it's conducted an analysis of over 800 million tournaments and found that people competing with larger phones won significantly more often than people using smaller phones.
  17. "3 Major Industries And Their Next-Gen Disruptors". Forbes. October 17, 2018. Operating under the motto "eSports for Everyone," Skillz runs over two million tournaments a day on casual games like Solitaire Cube, Bubble Shooter, and Dominoes.
  18. "Skillz 2017 Disruptor 50". CNBC. May 16, 2017. More than 10 million players from over 180 countries participated in Skillz events last year. Half of them were women.
  19. Gottsegen, Gordon (October 11, 2018). "A bigger phone could help you win that esports tournament". CNET.
  20. Fogel, Stefanie (October 25, 2018). "Skillz Gets Patent for Mobile Play-of-the-Game Feature". Variety.
  21. Heitner, Darren (August 16, 2017). "How Skillz CEO Andrew Paradise Built an Inc. 5000 Leader". Inc. Skillz is also involved in recording and broadcasting all of the games being played on the network, and built out a portal called Skillz Arena, which is a product for streamers to run their own sophisticated esports tournament streams.
  22. "Skillz hits $100 million revenue run-rate with mobile esports platform". VentureBeat. 2017-05-02. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
  23. "Skillz's top 10 mobile esports athletes won $2.7 million in 2017". VentureBeat. 2018-02-01. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
  24. Jordan, Jon; Editor, Contributing. "How real-money competition platform Skillz is riding the wave of mobile esports for all". pocketgamer.biz.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
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