Versus Systems Inc. offers a suite of proprietary business-to-business software tools that are meant to drive user engagement through gamification and rewards.
These tools allow the company’s partners to offer in-game prizing and rewards, including merchandise, coupons, digital goods, and sweepstakes entries — inside their websites, their venues, or their streaming media content.
The company’s products and games are designed so that end users of its products can earn prizes by registering on i...
Versus Systems Inc. offers a suite of proprietary business-to-business software tools that are meant to drive user engagement through gamification and rewards.
These tools allow the company’s partners to offer in-game prizing and rewards, including merchandise, coupons, digital goods, and sweepstakes entries — inside their websites, their venues, or their streaming media content.
The company’s products and games are designed so that end users of its products can earn prizes by registering on its system and completing in-content challenges like trivia, polls, or casual mobile games. Players can use its system to play a variety of games and earn a wide range of prize types, provided by advertisers and sponsors. The company’s products, include its in-venue XEO and Filter Fan Cam products for live events, and its new stand-alone ‘Winfinite’ product that can be used by brands, advertising agencies, and content partners to reach potential customers outside of sports venues, on mobile devices. The company also has an IP portfolio that can create future licensing and product development opportunities, including its recently allowed Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’) and Machine Learning (‘ML’) series of patent claims.
The company has three principal software products. Its eXtreme Engagement Online or ‘XEO’ platform is designed primarily for in-venue main-board work in stadiums and arenas. Its Filter Fan Cam (‘FFC’) platform is an Augmented Reality filtering tool that can be used for mobile and in-venue applications. In addition, it has a stand-alone gaming and prizing product that it calls ‘Winfinite,’ which allows brands, media companies, and advertising agencies to reach out to customers directly on their mobile devices. It licenses these three software products to teams, ad agencies, and other content creators.
Products and Services
The company provides the following products and services:
Analytics and support for in-venue products XEO and FFC
The company’s in-venue fan engagement products are used at a variety of live-event and other entertainment focused properties like stadiums and arenas, but they can also be used at conferences, theme parks, and restaurants to increase audience and customer engagement. Content partners, including professional sports teams, can use XEO and FFC in conjunction with their existing video screens, ‘jumbotrons’, ‘halo boards’, and ‘main boards’, as well as branded apps to reach potential customers with games and interactive experiences that enhance the live event.
Support and Analytics for Winfinite
Winfinite is an interactive advertising tool that increases awareness, affinity, data, and incremental sales. It allows content creators, marketers, agencies, and other advertisers to increase customer acquisition and loyalty through a combination of games and rewards. The product is compatible with a number of digital platforms and can be integrated into customers’ existing advertising campaigns.
Competition
With respect to the company’s prizing and rewards platform, it competes with a continually increasing number of companies, including industry leaders, such as TapJoy, Honey, Rakuten, and Otello who make their money largely on the free-to-play or free-to-use distribution of coupons and rewards. Beyond these direct competitors, it faces a certain amount of competition from pay-to-play ‘rewards’ companies like Skillz, FanDuel, or DraftKings that also use games and monetary rewards to drive user growth.
The company also faces increased competition from large media and technology companies with significant online presences, such as Apple, Alphabet/Google, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix Shopify, or Yahoo, as those companies move to expand their interactive offerings. This competition could increase if these larger industry players begin to add prizing or rewards into their offerings.
Government Regulation
Certain campaigns and contests of the company may be subject to laws and regulations applicable to companies engaged in skill-based contests. As it partners with brand and content partners to offer prizes that players may earn as a result of their in-game activities, it may be subject in some cases to the federal Deceptive Mail Prevention and Enforcement Act, as well as certain state prize, gift, or sweepstakes statutes that may apply to certain experiences that it or its customers and partners may run from time to time.
Further, the company’s online in-game prizing and rewards platform, which may be integrated into games whose player bases include individuals ranging from elementary school age children to adults, is subject to laws and regulations relating to privacy and child protection, such as the Federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA).
The company is also subject to federal, state, and foreign laws regarding privacy and protection of its users’ personal information and related data, including the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which took effect in January 2020, providing California residents increased privacy rights and protections, including the ability to opt out of sales of their personal information; and it is subject to the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which took effect in May 2018 and established requirements applicable to the handling of personal information of EU residents.
The company is subject to risks associated with doing business outside of the United States, including exposure to complex foreign and U.S. regulations, such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or the FCPA, and other anti-corruption laws which generally prohibit U.S. companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business.
Patents and Licenses
As of December 31, 2023, the company had over 50 pending patent claims with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to expand upon its existing portfolio of prizing, promotion, and financial technologies that enable brands to reach the rapidly growing competitive gaming audience of players, spectators, and broadcasters. As of December 31, 2023, it had been granted five patents.
Customers
The company’s three largest customers in 2023 were the San Jose Sharks, the Sacramento Kings, and ENT Marketing, a marketing agency that used its platform to promote Coca-Cola products.
Research and development
The company’s research and development expenses for the year ended December 31, 2023, was $1,107,235.
History
Versus Systems Inc. was incorporated in 1988.
The Analyst Price Target shows the analysts’ low, high, and average target at a glance.
