The court found Papaya liable for false advertising—not criminal fraud. Skillz had accused its competitor of using bots in cash-prize tournaments while marketing its games as fair and skill-based. After a jury trial, the judge selected a profits-based remedy; that ruling does not establish that every Papaya opponent was a bot or that every player is owed a refund.
What Skillz accused Papaya of doing
Skillz filed Skillz Platform Inc. v. Papaya Gaming, Ltd. et al., No. 24-cv-1646 (DLC), in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on March 4, 2024. Its claims invoked the federal Lanham Act and New York General Business Law § 349.
Skillz alleged that Papaya advertised its real-money, skill-based mobile games as fair while using algorithmic opponents—often called bots—in tournaments where players could win cash prizes. Those were Skillz’s allegations when it filed suit, not findings at that point. Papaya disputed Skillz’s position and argued, including through expert testimony, that bots could be used for matchmaking and to maintain enough opponents for players to compete. The court limited some expert testimony; those arguments should not be mistaken for findings that bots were or were not used for a particular purpose.
What the jury and judge decided
On April 23, 2026, the jury found Papaya liable for false advertising. That is the legal finding at the center of the case. Calling the dispute “defrauding players” may convey the accusation in everyday language, but the court’s disposition was a false-advertising ruling, not a criminal fraud conviction.
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The trial also produced several different monetary figures. They reflect different remedies and procedural stages, so they are not amounts to add together:
| Figure | What it represents | Status |
|---|---|---|
| $420 million | Actual damages | Jury award on April 23, 2026; the court later selected a different remedy instead. |
| $719 million | Disgorgement of profits | The remedy the court ordered on July 27, 2026, in lieu of the actual-damages award. |
| $652 million | Disgorgement based on cost savings | Advisory jury award; not the amount the court ultimately ordered. |
| Approximately $10.1 million | Attorney’s fees and costs | FIRY’s SEC filing describes the July 27 order as awarding this amount; the company release rounds attorney’s fees to approximately $10 million and discusses certain costs separately. |
The court’s July 27 post-trial opinion rejected Papaya’s challenges to the verdict and chose profits-based disgorgement rather than adding that remedy to the jury’s actual-damages award. FIRY’s SEC filing says final judgment was entered on July 31, 2026. The filing and the company’s release describe collection as uncertain.
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What the ruling does—and does not—say about Papaya bots
The verdict resolves Skillz’s false-advertising claims against Papaya. It should not be expanded into claims the reviewed court ruling and company filings do not establish: that every match involved a bot, that every cash-game opponent a player faced was artificial, or that every player has a personal right to recover money. The case’s central issue was the advertising and alleged use of bots in cash-prize play, not a ruling about the opponent in each individual game.
A February 12, 2026 opinion addressing expert evidence emphasized the relevance of disclosure. Judge Denise L. Cote wrote: “Whatever the practices are in the video game industry, it would mislead the jury to suggest that a decision to disclose the use of bots to consumers is a discretionary one to be made exclusively by a developer of an RMSB game and without regard to a company’s public statements.” That passage concerns what could mislead the jury; it is not, by itself, a finding about the motive behind any particular use of bots.
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FIRY, Skillz’s parent company, said in its July 28 release that trial evidence involved $6.7 billion in advertised prize money, roughly $4.7 billion of which the company said was not paid to customers because bots won. The release also reported more than 13 million bot participants versus roughly 11 million human players. These are figures in the company’s account of the trial evidence, not figures to present as independent findings by the court. In the same release, FIRY CEO and founder Andrew Paradise said, “We founded this industry and built its biggest and best company on one value above all others: honor.” That is Paradise’s statement on behalf of the company, not a judicial finding.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What happened to the other claims and what remains unclear
Papaya also brought counterclaims. FIRY’s SEC filing reports that the defamation counterclaims were dismissed, intellectual-property claims were severed and later voluntarily dismissed, and the remaining counterclaims and affirmative defenses were resolved for Skillz on summary judgment.
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The company release said a separate opinion on injunctive relief was forthcoming. The reviewed court opinion, SEC filing and release do not establish the later status of that issue, whether an appeal followed, or whether the judgment has been collected. Those are distinct questions from the jury’s liability finding and the court’s monetary remedy.
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