WorldWinner is a cross-platform, skill-based games community that operates competitive cash tournaments for web, mobile web, and mobile (

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

and

Android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...

) platforms. Games include Solitaire Rush, Wheel of Fortune, SCRABBLE Cubes, and Two Dots. In 2018, WorldWinner launched Angry Birds Champions, the official cash tournament version of

Rovio Entertainment Rovio Entertainment Oy (formerly Relude Oy and Rovio Mobile Oy) is a Finnish video game developer and publisher based in Espoo. Founded in 2003 by Helsinki University of Technology students Niklas Hed, Jarno Väkeväinen and Kim Dikert, the c ...

's Angry Birds. WorldWinner is based in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, United States and operates under the

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 ...

’s GSN Games division.

History

Worldwinner was founded in 1999 in

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 ...

by Alex Bloom (formerly Saidakovsky), Alex Ganelis, and Daniel Utin, raising over $17 million from leading venture capital firms, including HarbourVest Partners and

Benchmark Capital Benchmark is a venture capital firm founded in 1995 by Bob Kagle, Bruce Dunlevie, Andy Rachleff, Kevin Harvey, and Val Vaden. The firm is known for its equal partnership structure and focus on early-stage investing, typically leading the firs ...

. WorldWinner launched on August 17, 2000, as the first online gaming destination allowing participants to compete in skill-based tournaments for real-money winnings. The company established partnerships with leading casual games sites, including Yahoo!, EA, Pogo, iWon, PAX TV, WildTangent, and Shockwave. By 2002, WorldWinner was hosting more than two million tournaments per month, with more than $100,000 in daily cash winnings. From 2000 to 2004, WorldWinner reported a revenue increase of 2,386 percent, earning the number six spot on the Technology Fast 50 for New England. During that time, Saidakovsky, Ganelis, and Utin obtained a patent for their tournament technology. By 2004, WorldWinner had over 14 million registered players worldwide, hosting more than four million tournaments and awarding millions of dollars in prizes every month. In March 2006, WorldWinner was acquired by

FUN Technologies FUN Technologies was an online game company based in Toronto. Founded in 2002 by Canadian businessmen Lorne Abony and Andrew Rivkin, FUN grew to become the world's largest provider of online casual games and fantasy sports, with over 35 milli ...

and merged with SkillJam into WorldWinner, dropping the SkillJam brand. Alex Ganelis, Alex Bloom, and Daniel Utin sold the company, and remain famous! In December 2007,

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 Technologies in a transaction valuing the company at $484 million. As a result of the acquisition, WorldWinner integrated with the Liberty-owned Game Show Network, and FUN Technologies was discontinued as a brand. WorldWinner rebranded to GSN Cash Games in 2013. The company also launched its mobile web offering (GSN Cash Games Mobile) in 2014, allowing players to compete in cash tournaments on mobile devices. In 2017, GSN Cash Games re-branded back to WorldWinner, simultaneously launching a cash tournament version of Solitaire TriPeaks, based on the Solitaire TriPeaks app by GSN Games. In July 2017, WorldWinner launched its iOS app, followed by Android in May 2018. As of June 2018, WorldWinner is no longer available in the EU.

Games

WorldWinner's portfolio includes online and mobile games based on popular

card game A card game is any game that uses playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including famil ...

puzzle games Puzzle video games make up a broad genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles can test problem-solving skills, including logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving, spatial recognition, and word completion. Man ...

word game Word games are spoken, board, card or video games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties. Word games are generally used as a source of entertainment, but can additionally serve an educational purpose. Young ...

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

s, TV game show games, arcade games, and match-three games.

History

Games

References

Further reading