FUN Technologies was an

online game An online game is a video game that is either partially or primarily played through the Internet or any other computer network available. Online games are ubiquitous on modern gaming platforms, including PCs, consoles and mobile devices, a ...

company based in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. Founded in 2002 by Canadian businessmen Lorne Abony and Andrew Rivkin, FUN grew to become the world's largest provider of online

casual game A casual game is a video game targeted at a mass market audience, as opposed to a hardcore game, which is targeted at hobbyist gamers. Casual games may exhibit any type of gameplay and genre. They generally involve simpler rules, shorter sessio ...

s and fantasy sports, with over 35 million registered customers. FUN was publicly traded with a full listing on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

in 2003 and

Toronto Stock Exchange The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; ) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the List of stock exchanges, 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in th ...

in 2004. Abony was its chief executive officer when FUN was listed on the TSX, making him the youngest CEO of any company listed on the exchange. FUN was one of the fastest-growing companies in the history of the Toronto Stock Exchange. In less than three years, the company raised over $160 million in five rounds of equity financings, including its

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

. FUN completed eight strategic acquisitions for a total consideration of $128 million. In March 2006, American media giant

Liberty Media Liberty Media Corporation (commonly referred to as Liberty Media or just Liberty) is an American mass media company founded by John C. Malone in 1991. The company has three divisions, reflecting its ownership stakes in the Formula One Group, S ...

acquired FUN in a transaction valuing the company at $484 million. In September 2006, FUN Technologies held a competition with a $1 million grand prize aiming to find the "world's best casual gamer". The competition had 71 contestants and featured the casual games '' Bejeweled 2'', ''

Solitaire Solitaire may refer to: Film and television *'' Le Solitaire'', a 1987 French film * ''Solitaire'' (1991 film), a Canadian drama film * ''Solitaire'' (2008 film), a drama film *''Solitaire'', 2016 Lebanese comedy film with Bassam Kousa *"Solit ...

'', and '' Zuma'' The top prize of $1 million was awarded to a young woman of Odessa, TX named Kavitha Yalavarthi (now Kavitha Shah.) This made her the first esports millionaire and the top female esports earner to date. SkillJam, founded by Justin Beckett, Michael Raeford, and Mark Elfenbein in 1999 as EGamesGroup before being acquired by

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

based EUniverse on November 8, 2001, was acquired by FUN Technologies in 2004. The SkillJam website used to have

online skill-based game Online skill-based games are online games in which the outcome of the game is determined by the player's physical skill (like fast reaction or dexterity) or mental skill (logic abilities, strategic thinking, trivia knowledge). As in off-line games ...

s, including the exclusive license to Pop Cap's Bejeweled for cash and prizes,

sudoku Sudoku (; ; originally called Number Place) is a logic puzzle, logic-based, combinatorics, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. In classic Sudoku, the objective is to fill a 9 × 9 grid with digits so that each column, each row, and ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

, ''Zuma'', '' Big Money!'' and '' Dynomite!'', as well as partnerships with service providers like DirecTV, offering its game tournaments via DirecTV's set-top boxes. In 2006, FUN acquired its

Newton, Massachusetts Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located roughly west of Downtown Boston, and comprises a patchwork of thirteen villages. The city borders Boston to the northeast and southeast (via the neighborhoods of ...

-based competitor WorldWinner, an established

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

games platform with a large portfolio of games, including ''

Scrabble ''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a Board game, game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, re ...

Cubes'',

solitaire Solitaire may refer to: Film and television *'' Le Solitaire'', a 1987 French film * ''Solitaire'' (1991 film), a Canadian drama film * ''Solitaire'' (2008 film), a drama film *''Solitaire'', 2016 Lebanese comedy film with Bassam Kousa *"Solit ...

and ''

Luxor Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt. Luxor had a population of 263,109 in 2020, with an area of approximately and is the capital of the Luxor Governorate. It is among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited c ...

,'' founded by Alex Bloom (Saidakovsky), Alex Ganelis, and Daniil Utin in 1999. It merged SkillJam into WorldWinner.com in 2007, dropping the SkillJam brand. In December 2007,

acquired FUN Technologies. As a result of the acquisition, WorldWinner began to be integrated with the Liberty-owned

Game Show Network Game Show Network (GSN) is an American basic cable channel owned by the television network division of Sony Pictures Television. The channel's programming is primarily dedicated to game shows, including reruns of acquired game shows, along wit ...

, and FUN Technologies was discontinued as a brand.

References

{{Authority control Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Video game companies established in 2002 Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies Defunct video game companies of Canada Online gambling companies of Canada 2002 establishments in Ontario