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, and sp ...

company based in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

. Founded in 2002 by Canadian businessmen

Lorne Abony Lorne Abony (born August 26, 1969) is a Canadian businessman, currently the CEO of FastForward Innovations, Ltd, a venture capital firm. Life and career Abony was born and raised in Toronto. After graduating from the University of Windsor law ...

and

Andrew Rivkin Andrew Rivkin (born May 31, 1969) is a Canadian investor and entrepreneur. Rivkin is best known as the co-founder of CryptoLogic, a pioneering online casino software company, and FUN Technologies, one of the world's largest providers of casual g ...

, 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 sport A fantasy sport (also known less commonly as rotisserie or roto) is a game, often played using the Internet, where participants assemble imaginary or virtual teams composed of proxies of real players of a professional sport. These teams compete bas ...

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

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pa ...

in 2003 and

Toronto Stock Exchange The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; french: Bourse de Toronto) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the 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 controlled by chairman John C. Malone. The company has three divisions, reflecting the company's ownership stakes in Formula On ...

acquired FUN in a transaction valuing the company at $484 million. In September 2006 FUN Technologies held the first ''WorldWide Web

Games A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (su ...

'', 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 ''Bejeweled 2'' (also referred as ''Bejeweled 2 Deluxe'' in some releases) is a tile-matching puzzle video game developed and published by PopCap Games. Released as a sequel to ''Bejeweled'', ''Bejeweled 2'' introduces new game mechanics such a ...

'', ''

Solitaire Solitaire is any tabletop game which one can play by oneself, usually with cards, but also with dominoes. The term "solitaire" is also used for single-player games of concentration and skill using a set layout tiles, pegs or stones. These gam ...

'', 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 and Mark Elfenbein in 1999 as EGamesGroup before being acquired by

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

based

EUniverse Intermix Media, Inc. ( AMX symbol: MIX; formerly eUniverse) is an American Internet marketing company that owned the MySpace social network. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California and is a subsidiary of Fox Interactive Media, In ...

on November 8, 2001, was acquired by FUN Technologies in 2004. The SkillJam website used to have online skill-based games, including the exclusive license to Pop Cap's

Bejeweled ''Bejeweled'' (also referred as ''Bejeweled Deluxe'' in some releases) is a tile-matching puzzle video game by PopCap Games, developed for browsers in 2001. The first game developed by PopCap under their current name, ''Bejeweled'', involves ...

for cash and prizes,

sudoku Sudoku (; ja, 数独, sūdoku, digit-single; originally called Number Place) is a logic-based, combinatorics, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. In classic Sudoku, the objective is to fill a 9 × 9 grid with digits so that each co ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

, ''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 approximately west of downtown Boston. Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages, without a city center. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of Ne ...

-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 concentr ...

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 game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left ...

Cubes'',

solitaire Solitaire is any tabletop game which one can play by oneself, usually with cards, but also with dominoes. The term "solitaire" is also used for single-player games of concentration and skill using a set layout tiles, pegs or stones. These gam ...

and ''

Luxor Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''. Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-ai ...

,'' 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 Sony Pictures Television. The channel's programming is primarily dedicated to game shows, including reruns of acquired game shows, along with new, first-run original and reviv ...

, 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