Posted on: July 3, 2024, 08:55h.
Last updated on: July 3, 2024, 08:55h.
Skillz, a mobile gaming platform and game developer that allows players to compete for money in head-to-head matchups, is suing a rival competitor on allegations that it uses computer bots in its apps.
In a federal lawsuit filed in New York’s Southern District Court, Skillz alleges that Voodoo, a skill game developer based in Paris, France, duped customers into thinking they were competing against real human opponents. Skillz contends they were instead playing against computer bots developed by Voodoo that made winning nearly impossible.
Skillz was a pioneer of mobile skill games, launching its proprietary platform in October April 2013 from its Boston headquarters.
Skillz’s groundbreaking technologies, the company claims, include geolocation services to ensure a mobile request to play a game is coming from a player based in a state that permits such skill-based contests. Skillz claims to have also developed technological intelligence that allows players of similar skill sets to be paired against one another.
In more recent years, Skillz opened up its platform to third-party game developers like Voodoo. In its lawsuit, Skillz claims it did so to “maximize the impact and reach of its innovation,” but the firm also generates revenue by lending its mobile app platform to third parties.
Voodoo claims its more than 200 games have been downloaded seven billion times and there are 150 million monthly active users on the platform.
Unlawful Conduct, Fraud
Skillz says Voodoo knowingly committed fraud in falsely advertising that its mobile games offered through its Blitz Win Cash apps were “fair” and “skill-based.” Skillz alleges that the games were instead fixed in its favor.
While Skillz charges a small commission for facilitating games and pairing players, the prizes won by the players are put up by the players themselves. In Voodoo’s case, Skillz claims it charged a commission and then regularly took the prize money from the human player after its bots won the match. One of Skillz’s more popular games is 21 Blitz, which the company says Voodoo cloned and altered with the use of bots.
Voodoo, like with a number of more recent entrants to the mobile gaming market, capitalized on Skillz’s success by launching the application Blitz Win Cash, which offers imitations of Skillz’s games, with similar objectives, gameplay, and financial stakes for players. Although Voodoo advertises that ‘everybody has an opportunity to win!’ when playing its games, the outcome of its games are manipulated and controlled by Voodoo,” the complaint alleged.
“By using algorithms to control the rate at which players win, Voodoo can maximize its profits by letting players win just enough that they don’t quit and leave the platform altogether,” the lawsuit continued.
Prayers for Relief
Skillz alleges that Voodoo deceived thousands of customers and damaged the reputation of the skill game market. Skillz says Voodoo also cost it market share, revenue, and profits.
Skillz is seeking actual, compensatory, consequential, and punitive damages, plus lost revenue and profit compensation.
In February, Skillz was awarded nearly $43 million in a similar case it brought against AviaGames. A jury in that case, which was held in California’s Northern District Court, found that AviaGames infringed on Skillz’s patented protected platform by manipulating it to the company’s advantage.
AviaGames remains the subject of a class-action lawsuit from angry customers who believe they were duped into thinking they were playing against real human competitors. A third skill game developer, Papaya Gaming, is the subject of another class-action lawsuit for the alleged use of bots.
