Las Vegas gaming company rebrands in major corporate restructuring

A Las Vegas-based gaming and technology company is reinventing itself.

Skillz announced Thursday that it is restructuring into a technology holding company called Firy — pronounced “fury” — a move executives say reflects the company’s evolution beyond its roots as a competitive gaming platform. The company also plans to change its New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol from SKLZ to FIRY.

The new structure will place three businesses under the Firy umbrella: Skillz, the company’s real-money gaming platform; Beamable, a live-operations services provider acquired this year; and Rzr, an artificial intelligence advertising technology company acquired in 2021.

CEO and founder Andrew Paradise said the company has spent roughly two years developing the restructuring plan.

“I think that some of the greatest public companies in history, like Berkshire Hathaway, are in that type of structure,” he said. “I think there are some pretty great advantages for the investors of a business like that to be able to understand the different businesses that we majority own and operate.”

Founded in 2012, Skillz pioneered a platform that allows game developers to incorporate skill-based competitions into their mobile games. As the company expanded, it broadened its portfolio through acquisitions, creating a group of businesses that now share a common customer base: game developers.

“We’re in some of the best sectors of the new economy,” said Paradise about the three companies. “Real money gaming is booming globally … online advertising is booming.”

Rising from the ashes

The new name is rooted in the image of a phoenix rising from the ashes, Paradise said.

“I was thinking a lot about the phoenix, and like kind of we got public, we had, just, calamity happen in our business.”

Among those challenges was Skillz’s high-profile legal battle against rival Papaya Gaming. In April, a jury awarded Skillz $420 million in damages after finding Papaya liable for false advertising claims related to how users were matched in competitions. Skillz has described the verdict as a landmark win for the industry.

“When you think about the name and the change, it’s really this idea of fighting back against all the fraud and corruption in a space we created,” said Paradise. “You know, saving our industry, building a future and then extending beyond that.”

Future of Firy

The restructuring and ticker change is part of building the next 100 years of Firy, said Paradise, with Las Vegas as a key part of that. For the short term, the next step is bringing in new leadership.

The company recently hired former Aristocrat Gaming executive Alex Walsh as chief financial officer, while former Everi executive Todd Valli serves as chief administrative officer and former Zappos executive Nicole Singleton serves as chief human resources officer.

“I think building out a really, really powerful executive team is very important for the future of the business,” said Paradise.

Additionally, Firy also runs a co-op program, which brings in around 20 people a semester to Las Vegas from top schools such as Carnegie Mellon, Duke, Northeastern and more.

“We actually are starting to have the first co-ops converted into full-time permanent employees in Vegas now, so like permanently moving them here,” said Paradise. “I think that’s a big part of where this goes over the next decades.”

Additionally, Paradise is also looking to expand its local footprint with UNLV to “try and strengthen the university’s technology presence globally.”

Over the next decades, Paradise hopes to be one of the top tech employers in town “ being able to have the best and the brightest at the company” and keep them here.

Skillz stock was trading at around $8.30 a share Thursday before the announcement of the rebrand.