Skillz is an

online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" or ...

mobile Mobile may refer to: Places * Mobile, Alabama, a U.S. port city * Mobile County, Alabama * Mobile, Arizona, a small town near Phoenix, U.S. * Mobile, Newfoundland and Labrador Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Mobile ( ...

multiplayer video game A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

competition platform that is integrated into a number of

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

and Android games. Players use it to compete in competitions against other players across the world.

History

Skillz was founded in 2012 by Andrew Paradise and Casey Chafkin in Boston, though the company's headquarters is now located in San Francisco. Through different rounds of funding, Skillz has raised $53 million from venture capitalists including

Liberty Global Liberty Global plc is a British-Dutch-American multinational telecommunications company with headquarters in London, Amsterdam and Denver. Its respective legal names are Liberty Global Plc, Liberty Global B.V. and Liberty Global, Inc., with ...

Telstra Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets voice, mobile, internet access, pay television and other products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 ...

, Accomplice, Wildcat Capital, as well as the owners of the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

Milwaukee Bucks The Milwaukee Bucks are an American professional basketball team based in Milwaukee. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded in 1968 ...

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

, and

Sacramento Kings The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference Pacific Division. The Kings are the oldest ...

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

Software

The Skillz platform integrates into mobile games to provide

esports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

-related features. Skillz facilitates matching players with one another based on their skill levels. Players can also record or stream their games via the platform. Skillz currently has 18 million users registered on the platform, around 13,000 developer partners, and runs around two million tournaments per day for games such as Solitaire Cube,

Bubble Shooter ''Bubble Shooter'' is a clone of the ''Puzzle Bobble'' arcade game that was released by Taito in 1994. The ''Bubble Shooter'' game and IP are owned by Ilyon Dynamics, after they were acquired from Absolutist, who released the original game in 20 ...

, and

Dominoes Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces, commonly known as dominoes. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also ca ...

. Skillz has hosted over 800 million tournaments. Of its users, roughly half are men and half are women.

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. Another game that uses Skillz is Outplay's Bubble Shooter League.

References

{{Authority control Online video game services Companies based in San Francisco Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Special-purpose acquisition companies