Numlock Sunday: Cecilia D'Anastasio on a massive lawsuit over... Solitaire?

Photo by Julio Klinger on Unsplash

By Walt Hickey

Welcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.

This week, I spoke to Cecilia D’Anastasio, who wrote “Are You Playing a Person or a Bot for Cash Gaming Prizes?” for Bloomberg. Here's what I wrote about it:

Skillz Inc. released Solitaire Cube in 2016, a major hit in the tournament game business, but the company’s revenues peaked at $384 million in 2021 and have since declined to $150.1 million last year. It’s suing a number of rivals, accusing some of them of stealing its game technology, including Avia, which made Solitaire Clash, and Papaya, which made Solitaire Cash. Skillz is alleging that bots dominate its rivals, and that the cash prizes that ought to go to human players are sucked up by armies of bots that crowd tournaments and divert winnings away from competitors. This is big money: Avia said in 2023 that it’s paid out $1.4 billion in prizes to gamers.

This story gets into all sorts of prominant moves in the business of mobile gaming, incl…