At GDC 2025, Andrew Paradise, CEO and founder of Skillz, joins Game Developer editorial director Alissa McAloon at the Game Developer News Desk to discuss the mobile monetization space, what developers should know about skill-based monetization, and Skillz’s $75 Million Developer Accelerator program.
Paradise explains how Skillz, which allows developers to make and release games geared towards skill-based competition with real world prizes, can help developers monetize mobile titles for competition, how the platform suits developers with different monetization needs, and how various genres—including some surprising options—can make for strong skill-based offerings.
Andrew Paradise is the CEO and Founder of Skillz (NYSE: SKLZ), the leading mobile games platform for fair and fun competition, and the first publicly-traded mobile esports platform in the world. A pioneer of the idea of skill-based competition, under Paradise’s leadership, Skillz has become an industry leader in mobile gaming. Paradise has been the founding inventor behind companies in technology sectors ranging from eCommerce to image recognition. His passion for innovation and tech started early. At the age of seven he learned to program by hacking a video game. He began his professional career in private equity and venture capital, but in 2008 pivoted into tech when he founded his first business, Double Picture, an advertising technology firm. He sold the company to MPA, Inc. in 2010.
In 2010, Paradise founded AisleBuyer, best known for pioneering mobile self-checkout prior to its sale to Intuit in 2012. That same year, along with his fellow AisleBuyer executive Casey Chafkin, he founded Skillz, with the mission of bringing out the best in everyone through competition. The Skillz platform helps developers build multi-million dollar franchises by enabling social competition in their games. Leveraging its patented technology, Skillz hosts billions of tournaments for millions of mobile players worldwide, and distributes millions in prizes each month.
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This sponsored Game Developer News Desk Interview took place live at GDC 2025. Game Developer and GDC are sibling organizations under Informa.
