Skillz Files Lawsuit Against Competitor Voodoo Over False Advertising

Article by : Milena Petrovska Jul 8, 2024

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Mobile gaming platform Skillz has filed a lawsuit against its competitor Voodoo, claiming the latter has been using false advertising to promote its products. Blitz—Win Cash is mentioned as the primary product of interest in this specific case.

Namely, Skillz has accused Voodoo of claiming it offers player-against-player action similar to the one provided by Skillz. However, per Skillz’s accusations, the platform was setting up players to play against bots instead.

Skillz’s entire business model revolves around offering a social and competitive gaming experience to its users. They can partake in various tournaments and competitions on games like bingo and yatzy. Through winning such events, players collect various in-platform currencies, some of which lead to monetary prizes.

Its popularity has been undisputed and other businesses were quick to try and get part of its market share.

Voodoo Allegedly Maximizes Revenues Through Computer Bots

Voodoo is the latest company to attract Skillz’s attention due to its supposedly unfair operation standards.

Skillz claims in the lawsuit that Voodoo promotes its games as “skill-based” and “fair.” However, the company claims that Voodoo is using computer bots and setting them up against real users instead of matching players with each other. This step allegedly maximizes Voodoo’s profits while minimizing its users’ winning opportunities.

Going a step further, Skillz has called what Voodoo supposedly does as offering illegal gambling games. Per the company, Voodoo users had minimal, if any, impact on game outcomes, which was contradictory to the game of skill concept initially advertised.

One part of the lawsuit states that Voodoo benefited monetarily from every single round played by using bots and algorithms to determine winnings when real cash was at stake. Another part claims that the use of algorithms to generate tournament round outcomes was turning “legal games of human skill” into illegal gambling.

Skillz is saying that the misleading marketing used by Voodoo has negatively impacted its own customer base. Skillz cites various losses, including those in revenue, profits, and market share, as direct effects of Voodoo’s unfair operating practices.

Voodoo has quickly denied any wrongdoing, reminding users of its strict “no bots allowed” policy. The company has also claimed that its players face real opponents only.

Not the First Legal Rodeo for Skillz

While Voodoo is the latest entity to get in trouble with Skillz, it’s surely not the first.

At the beginning of the year, Skillz scored a huge win against another competitor, AviaGames. The lawsuit, worth almost $42.9 million, involved a patent infringement allegation against AviaGames.

In this case, Skillz targeted AciaGames because of its product named Pocket7Games, calling it a copycat of the Skillz Games platform. Per the plaintiff, most Pocket7Games were knockoffs of various Skillz Games and implemented the popular player-against-player approach.

Namely, AviaGames launched a failed game through the Skillz platform back in 2016. That’s when it supposedly stole the valuable Skillz technology only to launch its own copycat product.

Moreover, Skillz also claimed that AviaGames was utilizing bots to influence outcomes on cash games, just like Voodoo. This allegation has resulted in AviaGames being hit with a class-action suit in the state of California.

Another case against AviaGames is based in the Northern District of California, where Skillz and Big Run Studios are suing the company for copyright infringement.

Like in the case with Voodoo, AviaGames has denied all allegations, calling Skillz “a direct competitor” that didn’t like the company’s success.