{"id":206448,"date":"2022-03-23T10:32:49","date_gmt":"2022-03-23T17:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=206448"},"modified":"2022-03-23T12:45:38","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T19:45:38","slug":"news-of-ufc-gaming-deal-sends-skillz-stock-soaring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/news-of-ufc-gaming-deal-sends-skillz-stock-soaring\/","title":{"rendered":"Skillz Stock Rallies on UFC Gaming Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mobile games developer Skillz Inc. (NYSE:SKLZ) is rallying Wednesday. That’s after the company revealed a multi-year partnership with the UFC — the dominant mixed martial arts (MMA) association.<\/p>\n

\"UFC
UFC fighter Muhammed Mokaev during a fight at UFC London. The MMA league signed a gaming deal with Skillz. (Image: Bloody Elbow<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

News of the agreement is fueling a rally in Skillz stock, with the shares higher by almost 9% in midday trading. The previously downtrodden name<\/a> entered today with a 47%\u00a0 gain of just the past week.<\/p>\n

Financial terms of the deal with UFC weren\u2019t revealed. But given the popularity of the MMA series, investors clearly view it as a win for Skillz.<\/p>\n

The deal allows selected game creators from Skillz developer community to utilize certain UFC and UFC athlete intellectual property for mobile game creation and marketing. The new UFC-branded mobile games are slated to launch in 2023,\u201d<\/strong> according to a statement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Under the terms of the licensing deal, Skillz developers will be able to create UFC-themed competitive mobile games that are co-marketed by UFC and Skillz.<\/p>\n

UFC Pact Similar to Another Skillz Deal<\/h2>\n

The Skillz agreement is similar to one the gaming company reached with the NFL<\/a> 13 months ago.<\/p>\n

The NFL and Skillz are teaming up to reach global game developers to crowdsource a future mobile esports product. Under the terms of the agreement, the league and the company are hosting a global game developer contest.<\/p>\n

\n

For UFC, which is one of the fastest-growing sports associations in the world, the partnership with Skillz is an avenue for fan engagement and a practical one at that because as UFC Senior Vice President of Global Consumer Products Tracey Bleczinski points out, many of the sport\u2019s fans are also avid gamers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The combination makes sense because there are more than 2.7 billion active mobile gamers<\/a> and 10 million developers around the world.<\/p>\n

UFC has more than 625 million fans and 188 million media followers, according to the statement.<\/p>\n

Skillz Model<\/h2>\n

San Francisco-based Skillz offers gamers a different model than other paysites, particularly in the esports niche.<\/p>\n

Skillz matches competitors based on acumen, ensuring a gamer new to the platform isn\u2019t going up against an experienced, highly skilled rival.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The company estimates the mobile gaming market will more than double in value to $150 billion by 2025. This far exceeds even the highest estimates for US internet casinos and sports betting.<\/p>\n

The stock, which has long been a favored target of short-sellers<\/a>, is off 55% year-to-date. But if it can jump another 8.59% to reclaim its 50-day moving average, more upside from there is possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mobile games developer Skillz Inc. (NYSE:SKLZ) is rallying Wednesday. That’s after the company revealed a multi-year partnership with the UFC — the dominant mixed martial arts (MMA) association. News of the agreement is fueling a rally in Skillz stock, with the shares higher by almost 9% in midday trading. The previously downtrodden name entered today […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":206452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,16693],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNews Of UFC Gaming Deal Sends Skillz Stock Soaring<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Skillz stock gets major lift on back of gaming accord with UFC.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/news-of-ufc-gaming-deal-sends-skillz-stock-soaring\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"News Of UFC Gaming Deal Sends Skillz Stock Soaring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Skillz stock gets major lift on back of gaming accord with UFC.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/news-of-ufc-gaming-deal-sends-skillz-stock-soaring\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-23T17:32:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-23T19:45:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/UFC.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@etfgodfather\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/news-of-ufc-gaming-deal-sends-skillz-stock-soaring\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/news-of-ufc-gaming-deal-sends-skillz-stock-soaring\/\",\"name\":\"News Of UFC Gaming Deal Sends Skillz Stock Soaring\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/news-of-ufc-gaming-deal-sends-skillz-stock-soaring\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/news-of-ufc-gaming-deal-sends-skillz-stock-soaring\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/UFC.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-23T17:32:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-23T19:45:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\"},\"description\":\"Skillz stock gets major lift on back of gaming accord with UFC.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/news-of-ufc-gaming-deal-sends-skillz-stock-soaring\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/news-of-ufc-gaming-deal-sends-skillz-stock-soaring\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/news-of-ufc-gaming-deal-sends-skillz-stock-soaring\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/UFC.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/UFC.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"UFC fighter Muhammed Mokaev at UFC London. 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