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Skillz Inc Becomes the First Publicly Traded eSports Mobile Gaming Company
By Jeff Osienya Dec 20, 2020 IndustrySkillz Inc was inaugurated to the New York Stock Exchange after merging with a SPAC, the Flying Eagle Acquisition Corp in a $3.5b transaction. With the deal sealed, Skillz is looking to expand its portfolio and grow its presence in international markets.Early in September, Skillz Inc, a San Francisco-based eSports gaming company disclosed its plans to become a publicly-traded company via a $3.5 billion merger with Flying Eagle Acquisition Corp, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC). After nearly four months of waiting, the transaction was finally completed and Skillz Inc started trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Thursday, 17th December under the “SKLZ” ticker symbol.
After making its debut on the NYSE, Skillz officially becomes the first mobile eSports company to be publicly traded, effectively opening new doors for the eSports industry and the global gaming sector at large. On Wednesday, the day before getting listed on the NYSE, Skillz announced that it has zero debt on its balance sheet and $250 million in cash at hand to be channeled into company growth strategies.
Andrew Paradise, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Skillz expressed his delight after the public listing saying that;
Quote"We built Skillz on the founding belief that esports are for everyone, and have made significant progress toward our vision of enabling everyone to share in the future of competition. We stand at the intersection of mobile gaming and esports, perhaps the two most exciting growth opportunities of the next decade. I thank the entire Skillz team for their dedication, passion, and creativity, which have led us to this incredible moment on our journey to build the competition layer of the internet."
Paradise and his co-founder, Casey Chafkin who is also the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) will stay at the helm of the company and will be supported by an experienced team of industry experts including Scott Henry the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and Miriam Aguirre the Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
A New Dawn for Skillz Inc into a More Promising Mobile Gaming Future
Now that the eSports gaming company is publicly traded, it is in a unique position to leverage the rapidly growing mobile gaming market projected to hit $150 billion by 2025. The company plans to target a bigger chunk of the 2.7 billion mobile gamers by moving beyond offering casual esports games alone. Additionally, the gaming company will also be introducing new monetization models and make entry into new jurisdictions globally to widen its audience reach.
Currently, Skillz majorly serves the North American market, with the international market accounting for less than 10% of its revenue. Given that the international market is four times larger than the North American region that it has been focused on, there’s a lot of room for expansion for the company and of course revenue generation.
For years, Skillz has been considered the forerunner of introducing the gaming industry into a new and more lucrative future through its impressive business model. The company has been giving developers content monetization opportunities that are five times better than in-app purchases and ads. The 10 million-plus developers on the platform enjoy a unique social competition and reward-based structure, filled with opportunities to widen the reach of their games and ramp up their businesses. Moreover, one of the biggest strengths of Skillz for its gaming ecosystem is proprietary anti-fraud and anti-cheat technology designed to guarantee trustworthiness and fairness to both developers and end-users.
To date the gaming company has been recognized by different organizations as an industry front-runner; Skillz has previously been listed as America’s #1 fastest-growing company on The Inc. 5000, the Next Billion-Dollar Startups on Forbes, Disruptor 50 on CNBC, and one of the Most Innovative Companies on Fast Company.
Harry Sloan, the Chairperson of Flying Eagle SPAC voiced his enthusiasm upon the achievement in the following forward-looking statement after Skillz went public;
Quote"I’ve had a front row seat to the video game and entertainment industry’s evolution over the past two decades, from my role as founding investor and board member of Bethesda Games to recently taking DraftKings public. We believe that Andrew has positioned Skillz to lead the convergence of mobile, gaming, and player enablement into the future of entertainment itself."
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