Skillz
Skillz is a US platform that lets mobile games run cash tournaments between players. How it works and where it is available.
US skill-gaming platform; not a gambling licence
This brand is not licensed in the markets we cover (or only in part of them), so it has no Wayfinder Score. If you play there, you do not get the protections a local licence brings: limits, self-exclusion and a regulator to complain to.
- Company
- Skillz Inc. (NYSE)
- Model
- Entry-fee tournaments in mobile skill games
- Games
- Solitaire, bingo, bowling, puzzles
- Market
- Mainly the United States
How it works
Skillz does not make games itself. It supplies other studios with a tournament system: players pay an entry fee, play the same game with the same starting conditions, and the higher score takes the prize pool less the platform's cut.
Free practice matches use a virtual currency.
Where it stands
Because the outcome is meant to depend on skill, most US states do not treat these contests as gambling, though a handful exclude cash play. Skillz holds no gambling licence in the markets we cover (US, UK, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Portugal, South Africa and Ontario).
Cash tournaments are not available in every country.
What to know
You can still lose every entry fee if your opponents are better, and the adverts show winners, not losers. None of the safeguards of licensed gambling apply.
We do not score skill-gaming platforms.