Latest news with #Spikes
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
MoviePass, Led And Co-Founded By Stacy Spikes, Lands $100M Investment To Launch Hollywood's First Daily Fantasy Entertainment Platform
New funding has been raised to help movie fans benefit from the entertainment industry. On May 1, 2025, tech platform MoviePass — with the help of its partner, the C3 Foundation — announced the launch of Mogul, a 'daily fantasy entertainment platform' for Hollywood, according to a press release. The platform, which is the first of its kind, allows fans to participate in fantasy-style tournaments, head-to-head matchups, and solo challenges where they can apply their insights to predict audience attendance, critic scores, award winners, and more. 'You basically create your own studio by picking real movies, real actors, real directors and the way those projects behave in the real world, and your ability to pick and predict what might happen, impacts your scoring,' explained Stacy Spikes, co-founder and CEO of MoviePass, via an exclusive from Variety. Furthermore, fans can receive incentives such as blockchain-based digital rewards, including new avatar images and artwork, Inc. reports. In the future, Mogul intends to allow fans to earn cash. The app is projected to have 200,000 active users on the platform by the end of May 2025 and already has a waitlist of 400,000, Variety shared. 'We're letting people enter in waves in order to not completely overwhelm the system,' Spikes explained to the outlet. Looking ahead, the goal is revamp MoviePass to improve 'platform features, including data-driven competitions, digital collectibles, rewards-based gameplay and community-led challenges,' said Spikes, per Variety. This will be made possible through a $100 million capital investment from Global Emerging Markets. 'We've always been a company built from a fan perspective,' Spikes also said to the outlet. 'We're not a studio, we're not a theater, but we want to really find a new way of creating engagement around going to the movies. We don't want people to just sit at home. This allows film fans to show the same competitive spirit that sports teams inspire.' The post MoviePass, Led And Co-Founded By Stacy Spikes, Lands $100M Investment To Launch Hollywood's First Daily Fantasy Entertainment Platform appeared first on post MoviePass, Led And Co-Founded By Stacy Spikes, Lands $100M Investment To Launch Hollywood's First Daily Fantasy Entertainment Platform appeared first on AfroTech.
Business Insider
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
The CEO of MoviePass wants its new fantasy game to do for Hollywood what FanDuel has for sports
MoviePass cofounder and CEO Stacy Spikes wants to do for Hollywood what fantasy games and betting have for sports. "Sports has really learned how to create engagement," Spikes told Business Insider. "I think we can learn something from them for the movie industry." The movie ticket subscription company is launching this week the beta version of a fantasy box office game called Mogul. In this game, moviegoers can try to predict how upcoming films will perform in theaters. Like in fantasy sports, players can build leagues — or, in Mogul's case, movie studios — with teams that include actors, directors, and movies. Players are given a budget in digital coins to build a studio and score points based on the film's box office performance. Spikes hopes the free-to-play game will drive audience engagement with daily and weekly tournaments, by setting a roster and playing out seasonally, or through head-to-head matchups with other users. If the game becomes popular, MoviePass may try to expand with gaming elements that mirror sweepstakes or other markets where players can make real money, Spikes said. He pointed to services like FanDuel and DraftKings as potential models. But, for now, he likened Mogul to "Monopoly for the entertainment industry." MoviePass wanted the game to be a 'sizable leap forward' in tech Spikes said the idea for Mogul came out of MoviePass' Friday staff calls, when employees talk about what they think the top five films will be at the box office each weekend. He pointed to recent breakout films like " Minecraft" that crushed box office projections and caught some in Hollywood off guard. MoviePass saw an opportunity to box office predictions into a game to make the app "stickier for customers" and engage them more with social features. "We were always talking about what we thought the weekend gross would be, and it was just part of our culture," Spikes said. "That was the genesis, or the beginning of us moving into this direction." Players on Mogul have studios, which operate similar to how leagues do for fantasy sports. Users can select the movies, actors, and directors they want on their team by paying for them with in-game currency called Mogul Coin. Each player gets 1 million Mogul Coins to start. Points are then awarded based on the net the movie makes at the box office. So, if the film "Wicked" makes double its production budget at the box office, the value of the film, its director, and actors like Cynthia Erivo would double in Mogul, Spike said as an example. An actor or director's value might increase even more if they win an Oscar. The game is built on Sui blockchain technology, which Spikes said gives MoviePass options for rewarding players or expanding the platform. "That's unique in that if you do reward people, whether you want to do digital collectibles or other things, building it on blockchain makes it easier to do that," he said. Like MoviePass did when it launched movie ticket subscriptions, Spikes wanted to do something that was a "sizable leap forward" with technology. "I don't think you could have built this game very well 10 years ago," Spikes said. "It wouldn't have worked if you didn't have all of these other technologies that you can use now." Mogul has a waitlist of over 400,000 people Over 400,000 people signed up for the waitlist to play Mogul, Spikes said. The company isn't planning to monetize it through ads or in-app purchases at the moment. It's mainly looking to get users to play the game and give feedback on its mechanics. You don't have to be a MoviePass subscriber to play, but the company is thinking about ways to reward players who are subscribers or go see movies in theaters with bonuses. That's one of the points of the game, after all. "The more you engage in that way, the more likely it is, you're actually going to go to the theater," Spikes said.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Remember MoviePass? It's still around—and going all in on crypto
MoviePass was once a cinephile's dream. Throughout the 2010s, the company allowed users to pay a monthly fee to watch a movie a day in theaters. In 2018, it cost $9.95 for a subscription. That's less than what some theaters charged for one film screening, let alone 30, and the company went under one year later. Now, MoviePass is back, and it's touting a crypto-powered rebrand. On Thursday, the firm unveiled 'Mogul,' which lets users fill out rosters and predict what movies are poised to win big at the box office and what actors will pull in the most awards. The product, which is available to U.S. players, uses an in-game currency and is built on the Sui blockchain. MoviePass CEO Stacy Spikes stressed to Fortune that the in-game currency is just like 'Monopoly money' and that they haven't decided on whether 'it becomes real' yet. The only information the platform puts on the blockchain is game-related data, like a player's performance, he added. The CEO had thought about fashioning Mogul like a crypto-powered prediction market, or a locale where bettors can gamble money on who they think will win an election and other real-world events. However, he and his team eventually decided against it, he said. 'When [you] talk to laypeople and you say 'crypto,' it means you're doing a memecoin, you're doing something that Trump is doing, you're doing a Dogecoin… That is not what this is,' he said, in reference to Mogul. When he spoke with Fortune on Tuesday, Spikes was attending a crypto conference in Dubai, where he visited an expansive movie theater in a mammoth mall. He chose to watch the Ben Affleck blockbuster The Accountant 2. 'Every time I put boots on the ground in a city,' he said, 'I go to the movies.' More than a decade ago, Spikes raised $1 million to launch MoviePass, which initially charged users around $30 a month. In 2017, Helios and Matheson, a publicly traded data analytics company, acquired a majority stake in the startup and led the $9.95-per-month promotion push that eventually sank the company. Spikes was soon pushed out from the board and 'informed he was no longer needed,' according to Time. Less than two years later, MoviePass went out of business and its publicly traded parent company declared bankruptcy. In 2022, Spikes bought the company back for $140,000. 'I knew I could build something again,' he said shortly after the relaunch. (In January, one of Helios and Matheson's executives pleaded guilty to securities fraud.) As he's worked on MoviePass 2.0 over the past three years, Spikes looked for new funding and found willing investors—in crypto. Animoca Brands, a longtime crypto powerhouse with a focus on NFTs, led a $5 million seed round in MoviePass in 2023, and Mysten Labs, the main company behind the Sui blockchain, led a $15 million round shortly afterwards. Both raises were for equity and token warrants, or promises of a yet-to-be-released cryptocurrency, Spikes said. 'There's two kinds of businesses that are gaining traction right now,' he told Fortune. 'Either you're an AI play, or you're a blockchain or crypto play.' Spikes decided on blockchain. He owns an expensive anime-inspired NFT, holds Bitcoin and Ethereum, and has traveled to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Denver to attend crypto conferences. 'I think that blockchain and virtual reality are going to be an amazing force together,' he proclaimed. MoviePass's blockchain play, though, is just one part of its business. Subscribers can still pay for a monthly pass, but it's not a steal at $9.95 a month for a movie a day. Instead, a 'premium' pass costs $40 for up to five movies a month. That may mean less customers, but at least, Spikes said, MoviePass is now profitable. This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Yahoo
Oakland teen, 17, reported missing
(KRON) — A teenage boy has been reported missing by the Oakland Police Department. Jayce Spikes, 17, was last seen on Monday, March 31 around 4 p.m. on the 3000 block of E 18th Street in Oakland, the department announced on social media. Spikes is described as a Black male who stands 5-foot-11 and weighs 190 pounds. According to OPD, he has brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a black polo shirt, black hoodie and dark blue jeans. Magnitude-3.0 earthquake reported in East Bay Anyone with information is asked to contact OPD's Missing Persons Unit at 510-238-3641. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Childhood Trauma in Black Women Can Hurt Their Heart, Emory Study Finds
This story was originally published by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The heart remembers, at least when it comes to Black women who experience trauma or abuse as children, according to newly released research by Emory University. Childhood exposure to trauma, emotional, sexual, and physical abuse may lead to heart disease in Black women, the new study showed. Meanwhile, such trauma and abuse didn't affect men's cardiovascular health in the same way, which may indicate women have more chronic stress, the research found. The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association last month, shows that being exposed to trauma as a child can hurt a Black woman's vascular system — the arteries that circulate blood and fluids through the body — leading to heart disease. The stressors of childhood trauma may cause stiffness or hardening of the arteries, or otherwise impair how they function, contributing to heart attacks and strokes, according to the study conducted through the Morehouse-Emory Cardiovascular (MECA) Center for Health Equity and released at the tail end of American Heart Month. The study analyzed previous MECA clinical research involving slightly more than 400 Black adults in Atlanta ages 30 to 70 with a mean age of 53. About 60% of the study participants were women. That research explored the impact of individual, environmental, and biological factors that predispose Black Americans to either increased risk or resilience from cardiovascular disease. The new research, which began in late 2023, focused on Black women to learn: Does early life trauma in childhood have any relationship to arterial stiffness and vascular dysfunction, considered preliminary indicators for cardiovascular disease? Arterial stiffness is believed to lead to hypertension, or high blood pressure, because when the arteries don't expand and contract as they are supposed to, this results in increased pressure which the heart must pump against to move blood throughout the body, explained Telisa Spikes, lead author of the new study and a nurse and professor in Emory's nursing school. Her research primarily focuses on cardiovascular health in reproductive-age and early midlife Black women. 'This particular group of women has an increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, and we don't know why,' said Spikes. 'Diet and activity does not fully account for the growing disparity in this particular group with increased hypertension in Black women compared to Black men. A precursor for hypertension might be related to psychosocial stressors,' such as childhood trauma, she said. Participants in the original MECA study, recruited from 2016 to 2019, were considered healthy without a known history of preexisting cardiovascular or other chronic diseases, among other limitations. As part of that research, participants reported to clinical researchers at Emory and Morehouse about experiencing childhood trauma, defined as distressing incidents that threaten the body, family, or social safety or security of someone under 18. The experiences were emotionally painful or distressful, often resulting in negative mental and physical health consequences. The trauma might include the divorce of a parent or death of a close contact, Spikes said. While men and women in the study reported similar levels of trauma, the men didn't experience vascular complications. Women tend to be exposed to different forms of trauma, so their reactions may be more chronic, the new research revealed. 'Evidence shows that girls are more likely to be exposed to sexual abuse, whereas boys are more likely to report physical abuse,' according to the study. 'Findings suggest that men and women have disparate clinical CVD (cardiovascular disease) outcomes such that men have an earlier age onset of CVD whereas women experience higher CVD mortality in adulthood.' The study also found that 'women experience a greater burden of cumulative stress than men,' and it's possible that exposure to traumatic childhood events 'may prove more consequential for cardiovascular risk for women than men.' Spikes attributed the increased stress of Black women to their tendency to be single moms supporting their families with wage disparities from their male and white counterparts. 'It places them in a prone position to be disproportionately impacted by various stresses.' For balanced comparisons, the men and women in the study had the same marital status, education, and income levels, with almost half the participants making less than $25,000 annually. Participants from both sexes also had similar levels of blood pressure, glucose, triglycerides, diabetes, and hypertension. Spikes worked with researchers from MECA, including cardiologists and psychologists, some of whom were involved in the original study. Among them, MECA Director Herman Taylor said the new research is another example of how the intense challenges Black people tend to face, including childhood trauma and deprivation, have health consequences. 'In general, it suggests that it's so important for people, especially women, to focus on their lifestyle and make adjustments now so they can reduce their risks,' said Taylor, a cardiologist, professor at Morehouse School of Medicine and director of its Cardiovascular Research Institute. Among the findings of the new study, the higher proportion of mistreated children in Black communities, compounded by negative social stressors, may increase their risks for resorting to unhealthy coping mechanisms that can lead to cardiovascular disease. Researchers hope the results of the latest study will convince clinicians to consider childhood trauma and other psychosocial stressors among more typical clinical assessments such as checking blood pressure, lipid levels, and lifestyle behaviors when determining a patient's risk of heart disease and how to help reduce it. Clinicians, particularly primary care providers, should better understand the cardiovascular risks of African American women who come to their practice, especially if their blood pressure is borderline, Spikes said. She added that clinicians should refer such patients to mental health therapists. Taylor agreed. 'I think it's important, and research and clinical experience repeatedly show the close relationship between state of mind and heart health. So much of mental health is communicated into the heart and the vascular systems. Life stressors and mental health challenges … can have important implications for your overall health, including heart health.' He explained that doctors ask their patients about their 'medical, family, and what we call 'social history,'' to help judge disease risk. 'Telisa's work suggests knowing about a history of adverse childhood events — trauma, personal loss, even abuse — could be just as important to the prediction of disease.' Taylor believes that one of the lessons learned from the latest research should be that all patients, even young ones who seem healthy, may have experienced a trauma earlier in life that affects their health later on. Roni Robbins has been a journalist for 37 years. This is her second stint as a freelance reporter for the AJC. She also freelances for Medscape, where she was an editor. Her writing has appeared in WebMD, HuffPost, Forbes, NY Daily News, BioPharma Dive, MNN, Adweek, Healthline and others. She's also the author of the award-winning Hands of Gold: One Man's Quest to Find the Silver Lining in Misfortune. The post Childhood Trauma in Black Women Can Hurt Their Heart, Emory Study Finds appeared first on Capital B News - Atlanta.
