Skillz Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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May 8, 2025

There are 4 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good afternoon all. I'd like to welcome you all to the Skills Inc twenty twenty five First Quarter Results Call. My name is Lauren, and I'll be moderating your call today. There will be an opportunity for questions at the end of the presentation. I would now like to pass the conference call over to our host, Richard Lance from JCIR.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Skills first quarter earnings conference call. On the call today are Andrew Paradise, Skills' Co Founder and CEO and Gaytano Francheski, CFO. This afternoon, Skills issued its twenty twenty five first quarter release, which is available on the company's Investor Relations website. The company is in the process of completing its unaudited interim financial statements and other disclosures for the fiscal quarter ended 03/31/2025. Accordingly, we are announcing preliminary results for the first quarter, which are based on currently available information and are subject to revision.

Speaker 1

Actual results may differ from these preliminary financial results and other financial information as final adjustments and developments may arise between now and the time the results are finalized. In the event the company determines it will not file its quarterly report on Form 10 Q by the prescribed deadline, it will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission an extension on Form 12b-twenty five, which may include further disclosure. The company is also completing the financial statements and other disclosures for the year ended 12/31/2024. We were unable to file the Form 10 ks during the requisite extension period. We previously announced we received a notice from the NYSE that the company was not in compliance with its listing standards.

Speaker 1

The company is working diligently to complete the necessary work to file the Form 10 ks as soon as practicable and currently expects to file the Form 10 ks within the six month period granted by the NYSE notice and intends to take all necessary steps to achieve compliance with applicable NYSE listing standards as soon as practicable. Before I turn the call over to Andrew, please note that management's comments today may include forward looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. Forward looking statements, which are usually identified by the use of words such as will, expect, should or other similar phrases, are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we expect. Therefore, you should exercise caution in interpreting and relying on them. We refer you to the company's SEC filings for a more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact future operating results and financial condition.

Speaker 1

During the call, management will discuss non GAAP financial measures, which it believes can be useful in evaluating the company's operating performance. These measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for our financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP. The reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure is available in the company's first quarter twenty twenty five earnings release. With that, I'll turn the call over to Andrew for some opening remarks, followed by Gaetano for a discussion of our financial performance before we open the call for questions. Andrew?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Richard, and good afternoon. Before turning to an update on the operational progress made against our four pillars, I want to first update you on our Fair Play initiative and related litigation. As we've discussed on previous calls, these matters are central to protecting consumers and integrity of our industry. We remain active with our efforts to sound alarm that all companies in this space must provide consumers with certainty that they're being matched with real players. As we've highlighted for over a year, this is an industry wide issue.

Speaker 2

Our proprietary platform strives to deliver on this promise of fairness to players. Billions of dollars are at stake, and the long term health of our industry depends on building trust. We believe international companies such as Avia Games, Papaya Gaming, and Voodoo Games have used or are using bots to deceive players around the world. As a result, we believe players are being tricked into playing as bots or engaging in predetermined gameplay. We also believe our business has been harmed by these actions.

Speaker 2

To protect our business interests as well as the interests of our stakeholders, we filed lawsuits against Papaya and Voodoo. These lawsuits are ongoing in the Southern District Court Of New York. And as these cases progress, these international companies will have to answer under US law. Regarding our litigation with Papaya, Discovery's ongoing continues to be subject to a protective order. However, the following fact is public, which comes from a recent unsealed ruling.

Speaker 2

The presiding judge in this case noted, as she documented in her ruling, and I quote, in recent depositions, none of Papaya's individual deposition witnesses denies the historic use of bots as they all asserted their Fifth Amendment rights against self incrimination rather than testifying to any potentially disputed facts, end quote. I also remind you that the class action lawsuits have been filed by consumers against both AB and Papaya. In light of the allegations and information revealed in our litigations thus far, we encourage authorities to take all necessary actions to stop what we believe amounts to billions of dollars of fraud targeting US consumers. As a US based public company and the pioneer of the space, we're committed to leveling the playing field. We're confident in our ability to compete against any legitimate skill based gaming provider that operates fairly and transparently.

Speaker 2

Our goal is to protect players, support a healthy industry, and stem the tide of what we view as billions of dollars being stolen by bad actors in this industry, which we believe will benefit our shareholders. Now turning to the Q1 performance. In the quarter, we continue to work within our four key pillars to return skills to consistent top line growth and positive adjusted EBITDA. Our efforts to achieve these goals are supported by our strong balance sheet and financial position. For our first pillar, enhancing our platform to improve consumer and developer engagement retention.

Speaker 2

We've discussed on recent calls our focus on the new product and content pipeline. In February, we had launched our accelerator program to drive innovation so skills can access the best games and expand our offerings. The accelerator program is focused on identifying the next generation of skill based mobile games. By expanding beyond casual skill games and pushing into new genres, we're attempting to broaden the scope of competitive gaming. Our balance sheet provides the flexibility to deploy up to 75,000,000 over the next three years to support at least 25 high potential games.

Speaker 2

We've had a strong response from developers to date with many compelling partners in the pipeline. As we continue to evaluate games through our accelerator program, we're prioritizing both new genres as well as fresh takes on established genres for skill based gaming. What's become very clear to us is there's a tremendous level of creativity in the industry. Momentum around this initiative helped make the recent game developer conference one of our most successful to date in terms of developer engagement. For our second pillar, up leveling the organization.

Speaker 2

In q one, we continue to scale and optimize our Las Vegas and Bangalore based teams. With stronger in house teams, we're better positioned to continue making consistent strides in optimizing our product development, marketing, and analytics efforts. Moving on to our third pillar, our go to market. We had positive improvement in paying users for the quarter. Paying MAU or monthly active users for q one was 123,000 compared to 110,000 in q four twenty twenty four.

Speaker 2

The growth in PMO was primarily driven by marketing to our lapsed users, which is cost effective to reengage. However, we anticipate their spend to ramp over time, and we continue to prioritize increasing player spend through new features and new offerings. We also continue to prioritize optimizing CAC and growing LTV. UA spend in q one was consistent with recent quarters, and we remain focused on scaling traffic strategically. Lastly, on the progress on the fourth pillar, demonstrating a clear path to profitability.

Speaker 2

In Q1, we continue to make steady strides needed to achieve our goal of ultimately generating positive adjusted EBITDA. We remain focused on managing expenses while continuing to invest in our business to generate top line growth. We have achieved gradual improvements in our operating cash burn, which combined with our strong balance sheet provides us with the runway to return our business to sustainable and profitable growth. I'll conclude my comments and reiterate that our current valuation gives no weight to the combined value of our operating platform and the progress we've made towards achieving our goals or our net cash position. As we execute on our turnaround initiatives, we continue to believe our unique platform can generate significant returns for our shareholders.

Speaker 2

And with that, I'll turn it over to Gaytano.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Andrew, and good afternoon, everyone. Turning to the first quarter financial results. Revenue was $22,000,000 up 21% sequentially and down 11% year over year. Excluding a $1,600,000 life to date incentive adjustment in Q4, revenue grew 12% sequentially. Our paid user conversion rate, which is paying MAU divided by MAU, was 16.2% in Q1, up from 14.6% in Q4 twenty twenty four, with both PMO and MAU higher quarter over quarter.

Speaker 3

Research and development expense was $5,000,000 up 4% year over year. Sales and marketing expense was $19,000,000 down 9% year over year. Q1 UA marketing was $4,000,000 while Q1 engagement marketing was $9,000,000 General and administrative expense was $16,000,000 down 29% year over year and excluding the impact of stock based compensation was 12,000,000 Net loss of $15,000,000 compares to a net loss of $27,000,000 in prior year. Adjusted EBITDA loss in the first quarter was $50,000,000 compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of $90,000,000 in Q4 twenty twenty four. We ended the first quarter with $264,000,000 of cash comprised of $254,000,000 in cash and cash equivalents and $10,000,000 in restricted cash.

Speaker 3

Our cash position as of March 31 includes the $7,500,000 payment we received from AviGames as part of last year's settlement of our patent infringement case with us. This was the first of the four annual payments we will receive from AviA, which is in addition to the $50,000,000 payment we received last April. At the end of Q1, we had $129,700,000 of total principal due on our outstanding debt. With our improving cash burn, we have the flexibility to deploy capital to enhance shareholder value. At this time, I'll turn the call back to the operator for the Q and A session.

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the Q and A session. Session. We will pause for a moment to allow questions to be registered. Okay, we have no questions registered.

Operator

So that is now the end of the Q and A session, and this also concludes today's call. Thank you for joining everyone. You may now disconnect your lines.

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Key Takeaways

  • Skills has launched its Fair Play initiative and filed lawsuits against Papaya and Voodoo Games in New York, alleging widespread bot usage that deceives players and harms its business.
  • In February, Skills rolled out an accelerator program backed by up to $75 million over three years to support at least 25 high-potential game developers and expand into new mobile gaming genres.
  • First-quarter revenue was $22 million (up 21% sequentially), paying MAU rose to 123,000, net loss narrowed to $15 million, and adjusted EBITDA loss improved to $50 million from $90 million in Q4 2024.
  • The company ended Q1 with $264 million in cash and $129.7 million of debt principal, noting gradual cash-burn improvements that provide runway for its turnaround strategy.
  • Skills received an NYSE notice for delayed SEC filings but expects to submit its Form 10-K within the six-month extension and restore compliance with listing standards.
A.I. generated. May contain errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Skillz Q1 2025
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