With New Patents Covering Online Video Capture and eSports Event Organization, Skillz Brings Patent Total to Six

Skillz, the worldwide leader in mobile eSports, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued the company two new patents. Skillz has exclusive rights to both patented technologies and adds these to its existing portfolio, bringing the company’s total to six eSports-related patents.

U.S. Patent 9,479,602 covers the technology behind Skillz Arena, an eSports event platform through which anyone can organize, host and broadcast mobile eSports competitions with up to 50,000 players. Debuted in 2015 at annual gaming expo E3, Skillz Arena provides streamers, brands, non-profits, bars and other venues the ability to run their own eSports tournaments with real prizes, live video streams, leaderboards and dynamic overlays that fit seamlessly into a streamer’s existing content. The competitions can be invite-only, geolocated to a specific venue, or made available to anyone who has downloaded the game.

The second patent, U.S. Patent 9,630,097, covers a mobile video capture and live-streaming technology that enables mobile eSports events to be broadcast live on streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube. The Skillz live-streaming technology was the first to support real-time, over-the-air streaming for games built in any development framework.

“Organized competitions and spectatorship are what make a game into a sport, transforming activities like basketball and soccer into the global sports phenomena they are today,” said Andrew Paradise, CEO and founder of Skillz. “We want to make eSports more accessible to developers, streamers, viewers and players of every level. These technologies allows us to do that.”

The eSports industry is projected to hit $5 billion by 2020. All six of the Skillz patents have advanced the company’s mission of bringing eSports to everyone. For more information on Skillz-enabled games and implementing mobile eSports competitions, visit www.skillz.com or email launch@skillz.com.

About Skillz
Skillz, the leading mobile eSports platform, connects the world’s 2.6 billion mobile gamers through competition. Over 12 million gamers use Skillz to compete in mobile games across 3,000+ game studios. Skillz awarded more than 46 percent of all eSports prizes and broadcast over 40 million minutes of footage to spectators worldwide in 2016. 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 and New York Mets. To learn more, visit www.skillz.com.