Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra is now CEO of one of those technically-not-gambling daily fantasy sports apps

Mike Ybarra at a Diablo 4 launch event on May 31, 2023.
(Image credit: Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Blizzard Entertainment)

Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra, who stepped down back in January, has a new job: CEO of PrizePicks, a daily fantasy sports company.

In 2021, Ybarra was appointed co-head of Blizzard alongside Jen Oneal. The pair replaced J Allen Brack, who resigned following the California civil rights lawsuit. A few months later, Oneal announced that she was leaving Blizzard, and Ybarra became the studio's sole head until this year, when he unexpectedly quit shortly after the Microsoft acquisition went through. Former Call of Duty general manager Johanna Faries is now Blizzard president.

Ybarra announced his resignation at the same time that Microsoft laid off almost 2,000 of its gaming employees, including an entire team at Blizzard that had been making a survival game. He provided little explanation, saying only that it was "time" for him to go. According to reporter Jason Schreier, Ybarra had previously said that they'd have to "drag" him away from Blizzard.

Ybarra's new job doesn't give us any obvious clues about what really happened between him and Blizzard and Microsoft. His old job is only briefly mentioned in the press release, and he generically comments that "PrizePicks is the most exciting company in sports entertainment today." 

Ybarra's leap from PC games to daily fantasy sports is suggestive, though. Recent videogame industry innovations like loot boxes, battle passes, daily quests, and rotating shop selections certainly feel like they'd be at home in the daily fantasy and gambling worlds, and the ideas exchange surely goes both ways.

Daily fantasy sports emerged in the 2010s due to what's arguably a loophole in US law: Bans on sports betting don't necessarily bar fantasy sports leagues with cash prizes—they're considered games of skill—and there's no rule that the leagues have to last all season. In apps like DraftKings and PrizePicks, players pay to enter contests in which they select rosters of athletes competing that day, winning cash prizes if their picks perform well. Chance is of course a much greater factor when picking players daily, as opposed to managing a fantasy team across a whole season.

A related development is the rise of mobile gaming platforms, such as Skillz, that offer cash prizes for directly competing in small-scale gaming competitions. (Skillz calls them "casual mobile gaming tournaments," but if you're putting money down on solitaire, I'd argue that you're not really a casual solitaire player.)

Tyler Wilde
Editor-in-Chief, US

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.

Read more
Bobby Kotick in 2008, after the Vivendi merger that made Activision into Activision Blizzard.
Bobby Kotick says he'd never have raised World of Warcraft's subscription by even a dollar because 'it's a prickly audience, you don't wanna do too much to agitate them'
Three cloaked videogame dudes with glowing gems in the middle of their chest, heading out to the rave
9 years after launching his own studio, former World of Warcraft lead designer Rob Pardo finally reveals what he's doing with it
CEO of Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, speaks onstage during "Managing Excellence: Getting Consistently Great Results" at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on October 19, 2016 in San Francisco, California.
Bobby Kotick reckons the Warcraft film was 'a terrible idea' for Blizzard, and in the end 'was one of the worst movies I've ever seen'
Orc man looking pensively at camera
Former EA exec says the ailing mega-publisher missed a chance to snag Blizzard and other heavy hitters before Activision: 'EA saw all those first and passed on all of them'
Jar of Sparks website background image - three rocket-like things launching from a planet, I think
NetEase pulls funding for another studio: Former Halo Infinite design head says Jar of Sparks is 'halting work' while it looks for a new publisher
Less than 4 months after revealing his studio's new game, Michael Condrey has reportedly been given the boot by 2K Games
Latest in Gaming Industry
Geralt, two swords on his back, in the wilderness
2011 was an amazing comeback year for PC gaming
Assassin's Creed meets PUBG
Ubisoft is reportedly talking to Tencent about creating a new business entity to manage Assassin's Creed and other big games
Possibility Space concept art.
Possibility Space owners sue NetEase for $900 million over allegations it spread 'false and defamatory rumors' of fraud at the studio that ultimately forced it to close
Valve soldier man on a pc.
2024 was Steam's 'best year ever' of users buying newly released games—but I wouldn't celebrate the end of the forever game era just yet
Money money money.
Valve tracked 1.7 million Steam users who joined in 2023 to see if they stuck around—they did, and they spent $93 million
Gabe Newell in a Valve promotional video, on a yacht.
Go ahead and complain the discounts aren't as steep as they used to be, but Steam just had its biggest year ever for seasonal sales
Latest in News
Man facing camera
The Day Before studio reportedly sues Russian website for calling infamous disaster-game a 'scam'
Will Poulter holding a CD ROM
'What are most games about? Killing': Black Mirror Season 7 includes a follow-up to 2018 interactive film Bandersnatch
Casper Van Dien in Starship Troopers
Sony, which is making a Helldivers 2 movie, is also making a new Starship Troopers movie, but it's not based on the Starship Troopers movie we already have
Assassin's Creed meets PUBG
Ubisoft is reportedly talking to Tencent about creating a new business entity to manage Assassin's Creed and other big games
Resident Evil Village - Lady Dimitrescu
'It really truly changed my life in every possible way': Lady Dimitrescu actor says her Resident Evil Village role was just as transformative for her as it was for roughly half the internet in 2021
Storm trooper hero
Another live service shooter is getting shut down, this time before it even launched on Steam