Skillz, known for their role in the world of mobile eSports broadcasting, unveiled its new real-time encoding and streaming technology late last week. This will allow players to broadcast games from any Skillz-enabled game to a content-sharing website of the player’s choice, giving game developers a chance to acquire new players while reaching out to and engaging existing ones.
While existing streaming services are limited to specific game engines and only enable post-game sharing, Skillz will be the first to offer live, over-the-air streaming for games built in any development framework.
This is huge for the eSports industry as live streaming and video replays are crucial to its success much like any other sport. And with eSports viewership rising over 88% last year, reaching 134 million people, streaming options like the one Skillz will offer, should become even more prominent.
On the direction Skillz and the eSports industry is headed, Andrew Paradise, Founder and CEO of Skillz, said “If Twitch, YouTube and Azubu are the next ESPN, NBC and FOX, Skillz is creating the next NFL, NBA and MLB by enabling game developers to host eSports competitions in any mobile game.”
On top of their new streaming technology, Skillz also currently provides mobile developers with a full-service eSports platform that can be integrated into any mobile game within an hour. It has been integrated in over 800 games and allows players all over the world to compete for cash or virtual currency.