Skillz (SKLZ) Q4 2025 Earnings Transcript

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DATE

Wednesday, April 1, 2026 at 7:05 p.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Chief Executive Officer — Andrew Paradise
• Chief Financial Officer — Gaetano Franceschi

TAKEAWAYS

• GAAP Revenue -- $30 million, increasing 11% sequentially from $27 million in Q3 and 67% year over year from $18 million.
• Adjusted EBITDA Loss -- $10 million, improving from a $12 million loss in Q3 and a $17 million loss a year ago.
• Paying Monthly Active Users (PMAU) -- 141,000, falling 9% versus the prior quarter but rising 28% year over year from 110,000.
• AI Ad Tech Segment (RZR) Net Revenue Growth -- 146% year over year, with positive adjusted EBITDA for the full year for the first time since acquisition.
• Research and Development Expenses -- $6 million, up 78% year over year, reflecting investment in Skillz and RZR platforms.
• Sales and Marketing Expenses -- $19 million, representing a 27% annual increase tied to user acquisition and engagement.
• General and Administrative Expenses -- $18 million, down 13% year over year, attributed to cost discipline.
• Net Loss -- $18 million, a 27% improvement versus the year-ago period.
• Cash and Cash Equivalents -- $195 million at quarter end.
• Outstanding Debt -- $130 million, classified as current and approaching maturity within the year.
• AviaGame Settlement Payments -- $7.5 million received in Q1 2026, totaling $65 million to date, with two future $7.5 million payments expected in March 2027 and March 2028.
• Strategic Board Additions -- New board members Gary Vecchiarelli and Shannon Demus, along with Board Advisor Jeff Shouger, bring public company, capital markets, and gaming experience.
• Pro SDK Product Launch -- New software architecture offers developers enhanced creative and monetization capabilities.
• Partner Platform Departure -- Paid user decline partially attributed to a large gaming developer exiting the Skillz platform.

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RISKS

• Skillz management noted, "in Q4, we had one of our larger gaming developers leave the platform," resulting in a decline in paying monthly active users by 9% sequentially.
• Q4 2025 research and development expenses increased by 78% year over year, indicating pressure from ongoing investment requirements.
• All $130 million of debt is now classified as current, with management actively evaluating strategic alternatives as maturity approaches.
• Pending litigation with Papaya Gaming and Voodoo Gaming continues, introducing uncertainty as trials advance.

SUMMARY

Skillz Inc. (NYSE:SKLZ) reported its fourth consecutive quarter of sequential GAAP revenue growth, supported by substantial expansion in its RZR segment and new product launches targeting developer engagement. Capital structure optimization is under review as all outstanding debt transitions to current, signaling upcoming repayment or refinancing actions. The board was strengthened through the addition of members with deep experience in public markets, gaming, and strategic finance. Management highlighted ongoing legal action in the skill-based gaming sector, with trial dates imminent and potential settlement inflows detailed. Broader operational improvements were described as leading to enhanced profitability trajectories, though segment-level expense increases persist.

• The company cited, "we had a technical issue with some of our engagement and marketing technologies for our player base," now addressed, as another factor in Q4 PMAU trends.
• RZR's modernization efforts included an expanded technology stack and increased machine learning capacity, driving product adoption among both existing and new advertisers.
• Skillz is transitioning users from games of the departed developer to owned content but provided no metrics on retention or transition speed.
• Future payments from the AviaGame settlement represent an ongoing source of non-operating cash inflow through 2028.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• PMAU (Paying Monthly Active Users): The number of distinct users who paid to participate in Skillz tournaments or content during a calendar month.
• Pro SDK: A Skillz software development kit that allows partnered game developers enhanced creative control and monetization over gameplay integrated with the Skillz platform.
• RZR: Skillz’s AI-driven advertising technology platform, formerly known as Aarki, providing performance marketing solutions to advertisers and game developers.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Andrew Paradise: Thank you, Joe, and good afternoon. I'll begin today's call with an overview of our fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial performance. For the fourth quarter of 2025, GAAP revenue was $30 million, up 11% from $27 million in the third quarter and up 67% from $18 million in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $10 million compared to a loss of $12 million in the third quarter and a loss of $17 million in the prior year period. These results marked four consecutive quarters of sequential revenue growth and two consecutive quarters of year-over-year revenue growth.

For the full year 2025, GAAP revenue was $105 million, up from $93 million in 2024, which represented 13% year-over-year growth. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $51 million compared to a loss of $61 million in 2024, which represents a 16% year-over-year improvement. A key driver of 2025 was our AI ad tech segment, RZR, which was rebranded from Aarki last month. RZR delivered 146% net revenue growth year-over-year. And for the first time since its 2021 acquisition, it generated positive adjusted EBITDA for the full year 2025. In addition to the headline growth, we're encouraged by RZR's performance and momentum supported by stronger systems, deeper advertiser relationships and disciplined channel growth. Moving on to our 4 business pillars.

The first pillar, enhancing the platform for player and developer engagement. On the Skillz platform, we continue to invest in new content and strengthen the developer experience. Last month, at the Annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, we debuted our Pro SDK product. Our Pro SDK architecture expands our development framework and provides developers with full creative control of the entire gameplay experience. It also strengthens monetization capabilities through meta game systems while leveraging the competition infrastructure and secure layer that power the Skillz platform. Turning to RZR. Over the past two years, we focused on modernizing its technology stack and scaling its infrastructure.

RZR is evolving into a scaled performance marketing platform with meaningful monetization capabilities across the broader digital ecosystem. RZR is improving its machine learning training capacity and improving auction level intelligence across the platform. Building on the data models introduced in Q2 of 2025, RZR is expanding its retargeting and user acquisition share and improving performance across channels. Moving to our second pillar, up-leveling our organization. Operational efficiency continues to improve across both Skillz and RZR platforms, allowing us to better leverage our people and resources. Both businesses operate globally and are poised to execute on scaling their teams to support growth. We recently strengthened our Board of Directors with the addition of Gary Vecchiarelli and Shannon Demus.

Gary serves as President and Chief Financial Officer of CleanSpark and brings extensive public company finance, capital markets and strategic planning experience supporting high-growth companies. Shannon serves as CFO of the Americas of Light & Wonder and brings deep financial leadership experience across global gaming and digital entertainment businesses. In addition, Jeff Shouger joined the Skillz Board Advisory after serving as Chief Financial Officer of Niantic, where he helped scale the company through global expansion and strategic transactions, including its recent $3.5 billion sale of Scopely. Together, they add significant capital market expertise, gaming and platform operating experience and financial discipline as we continue to scale the business and execute on our strategies.

As it relates to our third pillar, go-to-market strategy and monetization. At Skillz, our focus remains on acquiring and retaining high-quality paying players while driving efficient monetization. Paying monthly active users or PMAU, was 141,000, down 9% from 155,000 in the third quarter and up from 110,000 in the prior year period, which represented 28% year-over-year growth. For RZR, machine learning enhancements together with improved bidding efficiency and campaign optimization have contributed to margin expansion. RZR is meeting customer demand by advancing its product capabilities. Importantly, RZR's revenue growth is coming from both existing and new customers. For our fourth pillar, path to profitability.

With RZR achieving positive full year adjusted EBITDA paired with continued improvements across the Skillz platform, we're making progress on our path to profitability. Let's now move to an update on our Fair Play initiative. As we've discussed and disclosed previously, protecting players and preserving fair competition remain core to our values as the pioneers of the skill-based gaming category. We continue to pursue litigation against Papaya Gaming and Voodoo Gaming for their alleged use of bots, a practice we believe undermines consumer trust and harms the entire industry. We remain committed to our position as both the Papaya and Voodoo matters continue through the litigation process.

Regarding Papaya, our trial is now set for April 13, 2026, in the Southern District of New York, and we look very much forward to our day in court. As a reminder, in connection with our 2024 settlement with AviaGame, our annual $7.5 million payment was received in Q1 of 2026. To date, a total of $65 million has been received from AviaGame. The company expects to receive two additional payments of $7.5 million in each of March 2027 and March 2028. In closing, 2025 was a meaningful year of progress across the enterprise. We stabilized the business, strengthened our platform infrastructure, improved operating discipline and preserved our balance sheet to support ongoing growth.

Additionally, we continue to deliver sequential and year-over-year revenue growth and expanded the technology foundation of both our Skillz and RZR platforms. By combining competitive skilled gaming with AI-driven performance marketing, we're building an ecosystem designed to scale engagement, data and monetization with discipline. We believe this integrated approach creates long-term optionality in gaming as well as in adjacent areas where content, identity, commerce and performance marketing converge. Our focus remains on executing against that opportunity while maintaining financial discipline and driving long-term shareholder value. With that, I'll turn over the call to Gaetano for a review of the financial results.

Gaetano Franceschi: Thank you, Andrew. Our fourth quarter results highlight the benefits of disciplined execution and structural improvements across both the Skillz and RZR businesses, producing stronger fundamentals and a trajectory towards profitability. Q4 2025 GAAP revenue was $30 million, up from $27 million in Q3 2025 and up from $18 million in Q4 2024, representing 11% growth quarter-over-quarter and 67% growth year-over-year. Q4 2025 research and development expenses of $6 million increased 78% year-over-year, reflecting ongoing investment in our Skillz and RZR businesses. Q4 2025 sales and marketing expenses of $19 million increased 27% year-over-year, which reflected ongoing user acquisition and engagement marketing spend.

Q4 2025 general and administrative expenses of [ $18 ] million decreased 13% year-over-year, reflecting continued focus on expenses. Q4 2025 net loss of $18 million improved 27% year-over-year. Q4 adjusted EBITDA loss was $10 million, up from a loss of $12 million in Q3 2025 and up from a loss of $70 million in Q4 2024, which represented a 17% improvement quarter-over-quarter and 41% improvement year-over-year. Our balance sheet remains healthy, and we continue to manage capital prudently as we progress towards sustained profitability. We ended Q4 2025 with $195 million in cash and cash equivalents and $130 million of debt outstanding that is now classified as current.

As the debt approaches maturity later this year, we continue to evaluate a range of strategic alternatives to optimize our capital structure. We are driving the business forward with focus and discipline to deliver meaningful long-term value for our shareholders and look forward to updating you further on our progress in 2026. Operator, we're now ready to open the line for questions.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] First question is from the line of Ed Alter with Jefferies.

Edward Alter: Would love to just dig into the Skillz side of the results and the paying MAUs and GMV. It looks like kind of the direction of growth from paying users versus GMV has kind of flipped versus the last couple of quarters where paying users were up a little bit and then GMV per payer was down a bit, and that kind of flipped in the fourth quarter. I would love to hear just your thoughts on kind of what changed here? And is this kind of the trajectory going forward? Or how to think about that?

Unknown Executive: Ed, thanks for the question. Yes. As you recall, in Q4, we had one of our larger gaming developers leave the platform. So we had a little bit of a dip in our paying MAU. But you can see that we continue to increase on our GMV per paying MAU. Going forward, as we restart -- as we continue to drive better efficiencies in our UA, we're going to rescale our UA spend and continue to grow also on our paying MAU.

Edward Alter: Okay. Great. So -- and then, yes, I guess, on the partner that you guys kind of leaving the platform. I think you guys had disclosed that in your 10-K yesterday that they were 51% of revenue last year. How is the progress going in terms of kind of moving folks from those games into -- I think you talked about some Skillz branded versions of those -- of that content. Kind of I would love to hear the -- how that rollout has gone.

Unknown Executive: Yes. We don't disclose like the transition for a variety of reasons. But basically, when the partner left the platform, there were some games that left immediately. And then the two larger games that are, call it, the majority, call it, 80-plus percent are there, and we're in the process of transitioning to our owned games.

Andrew Paradise: Also, if I could just jump in, this is Andrew, and thank you for the question, Ed. The other thing that we saw in Q4 is we had a technical issue with some of our engagement and marketing technologies for our player base, and we've now addressed that. So it's kind of -- you're seeing both effects in the change in [ PMAU ] in Q4.

Operator: There are no additional questions waiting at this time. So that will conclude the conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

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