Posted on: April 19, 2024, 08:49h.
Last updated on: April 19, 2024, 09:09h.
Skillz Gaming is assisting a proposed class-action lawsuit against Israel-based Papaya Gaming on the alleged use of bots in the company’s interactive skill gaming products.
Fresh off a February lawsuit against AviaGames in which a jury awarded Skillz nearly $42.9 million after determining that Avia infringed on its patent-protected platform, Skillz attorneys are turning their attention to Papaya. In a complaint provided to Casino.org by law firm Burns Charest, LLP, plaintiff Brenna Kelly-Starkebaum, on behalf of the proposed class, alleges that players aren’t actually competing against other humans on Papaya’s games such as Solitaire Cash and Bubble Cash.
“Papaya is a leading provider of online games where users purportedly compete in games of skill against other real people for money. Papaya claims to have no vested interest in who wins or loses,” the complaint begins.
Papaya users collectively have wagered hundreds of millions of dollars to compete in these games of ‘skill’ against what Papaya misleadingly advertises are other actual human users. However, Papaya controls the outcome of the games and uses its own bots to play against players to win, after which Papaya keeps the prize money for itself,” the lawsuit alleges.
Unlike the Skillz lawsuit vs. Avia filed in Northern California’s United States District Court, the Papaya complaint was filed in New York’s Southern District US Court. The plaintiff is seeking a jury trial for the proposed class.
Alleged Bot Use Widespread
Kelly-Starkebaum’s attorneys argue that Papaya players aren’t competing peer-to-peer but against Papaya’s bots. For the facilitation of the supposedly head-to-head skill game contests, Papaya charges a small commission, not unlike how a casino does while running a poker game.
Papaya claims to use “the smartest tech” to pair players with similar skill sets. The company claims to “have no vested interest in who wins or loses.”
“It’s not about chance. It’s about skills,” Papaya contends. Kelly-Starkebaum says otherwise.
Papaya’s games are not skill-based and users are often not playing against live, actual opponents but against Papaya’s own bots that direct and rig the game so that Papaya itself wins its users’ money while leading them to believe that they lost to a live human opponent,” the complaint reads.
The lawsuit details a tech-savvy user who signed up for Papaya’s games and devised his own bot to win on his behalf. But his bot won just 8.2% of the games he entered (35 out of 427 games) “despite running a macro that should have easily beaten any human competitor.”
Papaya did not respond to a request for comment on the pending litigation.
AviaGames Lawsuit
In its successful lawsuit against AviaGames, Skillz raised similar allegations of bot use, but the case hinged on whether Avia infringed on Skillz’s patent-protected platform. Avia claimed it simply used players’ past performances to compete against live players to expedite the player-matching process.
The jury wasn’t convinced.
The group of 12 concluded that after partnering with Skillz in a business-to-business arrangement, Avia modified the platform to its financial advantage. That hurt Skillz’s standing in the skill gaming industry, as players reported significantly faster pairing times on Avia’s app.
The jury found “willful infringement” and awarded Skillz $42.89 million.
