Session: Skills & Cash – How Real Money Mobile Games Are Shaping A Billion-Dollar Industry.

[Music] Next, I would like to welcome Nancy from World Winner to the stage, uh, who's going to be talking about how real money mobile games are shaping a billion dollar industry. So, welcome Nancy. I'm Nancy McIntyre. I'm the CEO of World Winner. We're in the real money gaming business. Is there anybody here that's ever made a bet on a sports game, played daily fantasy sports, played any kind of sports for money? Well, there you go. That's real money gaming. So, just a little bit about World Winner. Um, we've actually been in business for 25 years. We operate both

World Winner as well as a product in partnership with FanDuel called FanDuel Face Off. We've actually awarded almost $3 billion in prizes during that time. And in an average month, we have about 12 million paid cash tournaments and uh take in about $45 million in uh entry fees. So, it's a real business of ple people playing head-to-head and multiplayer gaming tournaments for money. Besides our tournament programming and our platform, we also are a developer of premium skill games. And we've got about 40 total games in our portfolio that range from uh things like Wheel of Fortune and Scrabble and Mass Market premium brands to um uh a range of classic skill games like bingo,

solitire, other card games, etc. Here's a video. [Music] [Music] [Music] That sounds kind of epic in this exalted place. I feel big. Anyway, for those of you don't that don't know, there's actually both a mathematical and a legal definition of skill games. Skill games are just what they sound like. They take skill to play. So, it's not just luck. You play against real people. Skill determines the outcome. The idea is there fair matchmaking where my skill

level I'm matched up with someone else's skill level. So, it's always fair and you win real money cash prizes. Skill gamers are interesting as a group in that they tend to be higher income. They tend to be more female and they tend to spend more than gamers in almost any other category as you can see. And so, they stick around for a long time. They spend more and they're really dedicated to skill gaming. The categories are uh what you would sort of expect. They've started with casual games like bingo, solitire, uh puzzle games, etc. But we're beginning to see more and more other types of genres like sports and casino come into the play. And the category is big and it's growing. Uh in the US it's almost $9 billion and it's growing at about 12% a year. But you can see as a share of the overall gaming market, it's about

14% of the whole market. So it's small, but it's growing rapidly and it's actually one of the fastest growing categories. What's cool about skill gaming is that it's part of a much larger gaming ecosystem, if you will, for real money that are crossovers. So whether it's uh daily fantasy or it's sportsbook I casino social casino sweeps casino skil gaming players tend to be people that like to have skin in the game and so they are participating in a range of categories that are like gambling categories. And so it's really very much about giving them things that give them excitement and and fun. And so when you look at that overall category, there's about 200 million people. 65% of the US population are actually playing games that are in and around the skill

gaming ecosystem. And you can see with 20 million people in skill gaming, but then you know 50 plus million people in playing social casinos and some other kinds of categories. You can see the opportunity to expand with real money gaming is significant and to expand with skill gaming is s significant. So in a time where the gaming industry is in a significant amount of transition, this chart really tells it all because people, you know, more than 50% of people say they want to play skills and the category is large. So, we've been thinking a lot, as have all of our competitors, I think, around how are you redefining skill gaming? Because the reality is it's been around for 25 years. There's been literally tens of millions of people, 30 million on World Warner alone that have tried World Warner. Well, why isn't the

category even bigger already? And you know, one of the things is the chart that I showed before that people are beginning to play other types of competitive products that are more in the real money space with casino, sweeps casino, etc. that are taking share or taking interest away from skills and from skill gaming. And so, you know, we really believe that this category will expand by offering new types of ways to win, bigger rewards, games that feel more like casino games or esports games, etc. that really make the make the experience more exciting. And that comes comes into you know that games should always be skill first but giving the impression that there are more ways to win and really uh playing to the luck motivation will be you know really critical as we think about where skill gaming goes over the long

haul. And so as we think about the implications for really making this pro making this category grow, I mean, a couple of things really come to mind. And if you're involved in the free-to-play space, it's it really isn't going to look all that different than than how you might think about free-to-play businesses, which are, you know, being able to play against friends, actually having synchronous plays, being able to have leagues or teams that work together, and then um bringing in different types of mechanics, whether they might be sweeps mechanics, tickets, scratchers, etc. that are different ways to actually motivate the customer and then really playing off on loyalty programs and other ways to really keep the customer around. Introducing Blackjack Peak Pay. So, I didn't mean to do that and now I don't know how to go backwards, but um but I'll show you a game that we just re re released a couple of weeks ago with

the called Blackjack Peak Payout where we we decided to take our classic skill gaming play pattern and apply it to something that everybody knew which was casino. We actually had a game that was invented by our CFO and made on uh Excel and then our games team took it and ran with it and asked the question, how do you make blackjack into a skill game? And here's a little video about that. Oops. Let's see if we can do this. Introducing Blackjack Peak Payout on World Winner. Think you've mastered blackjack? Think again. Place your bets. Use peak cards to predict your next move and outsmart the dealer. Card counting is not just allowed, it's part of the game. Bet on blackjack with insurance plus. Land a perfect blackjack and win the cash

prize. Play skill-based blackjack tournaments. Real cash, real players, real wins. exclusively on World Winner. Download now and prove your skills. So, this is an example of taking a play pattern that customers really know about and they understand it and then making it into a skill game so it uh so it a meets the criteria of skill gaming, but also um is easy to master and uh easy for people to play. So as we think about the market, we already know that the US is is rocking in North America as a whole. It it really is a category that is not pervasive around the world. I mean really the biggest markets are India, some parts of Europe led by Germany, the US. Um and there's a tremendous amount

of opportunity around the world. But of course there are complexities with regulations and different types of rules in different markets which has really sort of maybe slowed the growth of skill gaming. But over time we believe that there is really a big upside to expand to new markets. And here's just a quick look at that. um you know I'll just point out that everything in green are markets that are you know e more easily um entered and then everything in pink are more complex and so as you think about other types of real money categories that have uh come into the US whether it's DFS sports book etc each state has its own rules and in this case each country has its own rules and requires sort of a sophisticated effort around expanding into new markets. So, I wanted to just talk about

um you know, we've we've talked about the games and we've talked about the need to evolve, but you know, I think the most important thing to think about is that there's really three things that will make this category grow. And the and the first is taking taking the games and making them more fun uh by giving players the ability to win. So they're our first constituent. Our second constituent is that for developers really anybody that wants to be in the skill gaming business. Um this is a new way to monetize your content. So if you are a developer and you have classic games that you think that could work in skill in skill gaming environment, go out and do it. I mean, one of our biggest games is Bejeweled, which has been around forever and everybody knows how to play it, but do it in cash tournaments and it makes it really appealing. And then the last is um there are many kinds of businesses around the

world and in the United States that are interested in being in skill gaming. I think most of you know that we're in business with FanDuel. We operate a white label version of our product called FanDuel Faceoff. And there are many many people that are in the business of distributing games, making games a part of their overall uh portfolio. I mean, everybody here has probably played Wordle on the New York Times and seen how that they've really expanded their game selections. Same thing with Yahoo, etc. I believe that over the long haul, anybody that is in the real money gaming business or in the gaming business will eventually want to be in the skill gaming business. So it really provides sort of a big opportunity. Uh so just to sort of summarize um you know as we think about the number of skilled gaming players in the United States at about 20 million that's only 10% of the total gaming

population. So there's really a significant upside to to just increasing the penitentation of skilled gamers. Secondly, um the newer types of experiences that are similar to skill gaming but aren't skill gaming like sweeps casinos have absolutely exploded. So there's a tremendous overlap with those customers. Bigger opportunity there. And then as you think about mobile gamers, uh actually 46% of mobile gamers say that they're interested in playing games for money and they're not today. And so uh you know just to summarize we think that innovation in play patterns and new ways to win will really be the growth driver with consumers and once the consumers come along new distribution points new types of partners new genres will really be what drives the way. So um I actually did this in less than 20 minutes. So if anybody has any

questions I'm happy to answer them. [Music] Everyone's quiet. Okay. Yeah. So the question is are we considering Yeah. Apac regions in the future? Yeah. I mean Asia is a is a big focus for expansion for us. Yes. Anybody else? One over here. Okay. Hi, I'm Roy from Publishers Clearing House. Um, do you have any thoughts around regulation around all these spaces and different states? Uh, you know, we're live in 42 states. Um, and uh, you know, it is not a regulated category like other like other categories and it's it has uh never been regulated, I guess, is the is the best way of saying it. You know,

we're well aware of all of the legalities and what's happening with skil with uh sweeps casinos and other types of categories and we're paying a lot of attention to it.