Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 21 to 34 of 34

Thread: Skillz, owner of popular 21 Blitz card game app, is being sued by a hot 19-year-old chick in Vegas, and Mac Verstandig is her attorney

  1. #21
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
    Reputation
    10110
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    54,626
    Blog Entries
    2
    Load Metric
    65663697
    Quote Originally Posted by Peter Binklage View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    UPDATE

    On November 12, US District Court of Nevada granted Skillz's motion to compel arbitration. The court had previously granted Skillz's previous motion to compel "Jane Roe" (third plaintiff -- the one who was the losing player) to use her real name in the suit. However, this becomes moot because the whole thing
    is being forced back to arbitration.

    The judge wrote this:




    Mac is apparently appealing this.
    Is there even a right to an interlocutory appeal from an order granting a motion to compel arbitration?
    No idea, but apparently it's being attempted.

  2. #22
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
    Reputation
    10110
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    54,626
    Blog Entries
    2
    Load Metric
    65663697
    BUMP

    A stock analysis website is claiming they are bearish on Skillz (SKLZ) market value, for a variety of reasons.

    https://wolfpackresearch.com/research/skillz/

    We are short Skillz, Inc. (Nasdaq: SKLZ) because its top games appear to be stagnant to declining, leading us to believe its revenue projections are farcical. Our research, including conversations with former employees, employees of Skillz’s two largest developers, and independent third-party app download data, all show us that the growth projections SKLZ and its SPAC sponsor continue to present to investors are entirely unrealistic.

    We found that SKLZ’s top three games, representing ~88% of its revenues, had already plateaued by Q3 2020. What’s worse is that SKLZ growth story is falling apart in Q1 2021. While SKLZ is projecting 12.3% sequential revenue growth and 61.4% year-over-year (“YoY”) revenue growth in 1Q21, third party app data shows that SKLZ’s total installations are down double digits through the first two months of 1Q21. While SKLZ may very well eke out its numbers for Q4 2020, concerned investors should be seeking answers regarding Q1 2021 guidance on Wednesday’s earnings call.

    SKLZ has a history of announcing deals/partnerships which have historically amounted to very little, or nothing at all. The latest of which was SKLZ’s conveniently-timed announcement of its purported partnership with the NFL, which pumped its stock 25% to all-time highs just days before filing an S-1 allowing insiders to sell millions of shares of stock at these inflated prices. Smart money seems to have figured out very quickly that, like so many of SKLZ past deals, this NFL “partnership” won’t amount to much, if anything at all – likely having seen what we saw.
    .
    .
    .
    Former employees we spoke to commonly referred to SKLZ numbers as “smoke and mirrors” and SKLZ recently settled a lawsuit with Eric Cooper, Skillz’s former Head of Finance and Administration, who claimed he was fired for not going along with CEO Andrew Paradise’s unattainably aggressive financial projections.



    You can see more if you click on the link above.

    Shaaaaaaaaady.

  3. #23
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
    Reputation
    10110
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    54,626
    Blog Entries
    2
    Load Metric
    65663697
    Skillz really going all-in with Blackout Bingo, trying to make it the next 21 Blitz.

    I keep seeing ads pop up for it when I play other (non-Skillz) games.

    Here's one they recycled from 21 Blitz:




    The $2,000,000 per week is BS. This is impossible, and nobody has ever come close to doing it. Total nonsense.


    Here's another:





    Again, notice these are aimed at females. I saw another Blackout Bingo ad with attractive young women talking about how one of them bought shoes with their winnings. LOL

    Such a shady company.

  4. #24
    Bronze
    Reputation
    21
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Posts
    75
    Load Metric
    65663697
    It appears that Plaintiffs are not appealing whether they'll be forced to arbitrate under Skillz' T&C (they will be forced to arbitrate, though there is an unresolved dispute in the district court over whether Skillz will pay 100% or 50% of the fees for arbitration).

    Jane Roe is appealing the district court's denial of her motions to proceed anonymously and her motion to seal the certificate of interested parties (which contains her real name). Her name was set to be revealed by the court on November 25, 2020, but that has been stayed pending the outcome of the appeal. Looks like Mac will be doing oral argument in front of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in August.

    Monday morning quarterbacking here, but I think Mac should have tried noticing voluntary dismissal of these claims under FRCP 41(a)(1)(A)(i), which would presumably "close the file" as a "matter of right" and prevent the court from taking actions such as unsealing the certificate of interested parties. At least this seems like a good idea if the client's continued anonymity is worth more than any potential recovery from litigation, or arbitration seems like a complete dead end.

    Not going to fully research whether this tactic would actually work, but google seems to indicate it did in the context of an anonymous plaintiff suing Donald Trump over rape allegations: https://princetoninfo.com/trump-rape...uptly-dropped/

    Maybe Mac is just saving the FRCP 41(a)(1)(A)(i) card in case the 9th Circuit affirms?

  5. #25
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
    Reputation
    10110
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    54,626
    Blog Entries
    2
    Load Metric
    65663697
    I posted that stock analysis on March 10. I saw SKLZ went down today, so it made me go look how it's done since that analysis was posted on March 10.

    In short, not well.

    It was $25.70 on March 10, then went up for the next week an had a temporary peak at $31.65. It was $43.72 on Feb 5, crashed to $24.45 by March 8, and then started back up. However, after March 15, it was mostly straight down, hitting $12.55 on April 20, before rebounding back to $21.16 on April 26. Since then it's back down, and is at $14.41 at the close today.

    I am getting indundated by Blackout Bingo and Solitaire Cube ads, which I wonder might be a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding.

  6. #26
    Platinum ftpjesus's Avatar
    Reputation
    588
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Mesa AZ
    Posts
    4,080
    Load Metric
    65663697
    Bought some put options on SKLZ for end of the month at $10 strike price.. Pretty cheap so Im not out much if they expire worthless but I suspect itll trend back down at make me a profit given whats going on.. the options today already went from .01 each to .10 so odds are its an indication a bearish trend is gonna push the put prices up..

  7. #27
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
    Reputation
    10110
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    54,626
    Blog Entries
    2
    Load Metric
    65663697
    SKLZ trading at around 11 now. Its all time low was 10. Looks like that analysis earlier this year was spot on.

  8. #28
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
    Reputation
    10110
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    54,626
    Blog Entries
    2
    Load Metric
    65663697
    Down to $7. This author thinks it may be going down to 0:

    https://investorplace.com/2021/12/sk...ling-business/

    Boy I wish I went with my gut and shorted this thing when I first mentioned it. I might actually do it now.

    I have been poking around on 21 Blitz (their best game), and it's headed toward being a ghost town. People are complaining in the chat about it. Even the chat, which was once bustling with fast-scrolling messages, is pretty slow now.

    Skillz looks like a 1-trick pony, and I think they've run out of suckers to get playing. The fact that such a high % of people lose there makes it to where they're unlikely to return. Their platform isn't technically impressive at all, and can't do synchronous gaming.

  9. #29
    Gold The Boz's Avatar
    Reputation
    790
    Join Date
    Jul 2020
    Posts
    1,035
    Load Metric
    65663697
    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    Down to $7. This author thinks it may be going down to 0:

    https://investorplace.com/2021/12/sk...ling-business/

    Boy I wish I went with my gut and shorted this thing when I first mentioned it. I might actually do it now.

    I have been poking around on 21 Blitz (their best game), and it's headed toward being a ghost town. People are complaining in the chat about it. Even the chat, which was once bustling with fast-scrolling messages, is pretty slow now.

    Skillz looks like a 1-trick pony, and I think they've run out of suckers to get playing. The fact that such a high % of people lose there makes it to where they're unlikely to return. Their platform isn't technically impressive at all, and can't do synchronous gaming.
    What you missed by not shorting it before is nothing compared to what you can still make IF the author is right on it going to next to nothing.

    Think of the percentages on the way down from 7, again if it happens. Definitely worth a small investment in a short if you think it’s going to happen.

  10. #30
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
    Reputation
    10110
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    54,626
    Blog Entries
    2
    Load Metric
    65663697
    2.89 now

    I still never shorted this.

    Oh well. The problem with shorting is that the upside is limited and the downside can be huge. That's kinda what drove me away.

    The company is circling the drain, but I'm worried that another company could swoop in and show interest in buying them, which could send it rocketing back up. The concept they have is sound, but the execution is horrible.

    The other problem would have been finding the shares to short, which may not have been trivial.

  11. #31
    Bronze
    Reputation
    121
    Join Date
    Oct 2022
    Posts
    496
    Load Metric
    65663697
    $1.19/share

    The late 90's had dot com stocks and beanie babies. This time around it was SPAC stocks and NFT's/tokens.

    This happens about every 20 years or so. The young kids that didn't experience the pain of the dot com implosion are feeling the pain now seeing their crypto balances get demolished. It will happen again in 20 years.

  12. #32
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
    Reputation
    10110
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    54,626
    Blog Entries
    2
    Load Metric
    65663697
    Quote Originally Posted by Small_Banana View Post
    $1.19/share

    The late 90's had dot com stocks and beanie babies. This time around it was SPAC stocks and NFT's/tokens.

    This happens about every 20 years or so. The young kids that didn't experience the pain of the dot com implosion are feeling the pain now seeing their crypto balances get demolished. It will happen again in 20 years.
    This isn't related to crypto/NFTs. Just a dumb business model and mismanagement, which was destined to fail.

  13. #33
    Bronze
    Reputation
    121
    Join Date
    Oct 2022
    Posts
    496
    Load Metric
    65663697
    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Small_Banana View Post
    $1.19/share

    The late 90's had dot com stocks and beanie babies. This time around it was SPAC stocks and NFT's/tokens.

    This happens about every 20 years or so. The young kids that didn't experience the pain of the dot com implosion are feeling the pain now seeing their crypto balances get demolished. It will happen again in 20 years.
    This isn't related to crypto/NFTs. Just a dumb business model and mismanagement, which was destined to fail.
    I was comparing the current market implosion with the dot com bust. The 100's of SPAC's that went public, Including Skillz, have been demolished...similar to the dot com stocks with dumb business models. DraftKings was another SPAC and that has been an epic fail. Any stock that did a reverse merger with a SPAC is pretty much doomed to fail. They were unprofitable scams from the start.

  14. #34
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
    Reputation
    10110
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    54,626
    Blog Entries
    2
    Load Metric
    65663697
    BUMP

    Well well well... looks like Skillz is now on the ass end of unethical behavior. While Skillz itself is on the shady side, for reasons already enumerated in this thread, now they find themselves being crushed by a company which allegedly stole their intellectual property AND is cheating its players.

    Skillz is suing AviaGames for stealing its IP, and indeed it looks like they have a strong point here:

    Look at the games "Blackout Bingo" (Skillz) and "Bingo Clash" (AviaGames), and you'll see it's virtually identical:




    Skillz has been suing AviaGames since mid-2021, claiming that Avia stole two of their proprietary games, and in fact stealthily took a contract position as a Skillz games developer in 2016, in order to learn their platform better.

    A good description of the situation is here: https://venturebeat.com/games/feds-s...n-skill-games/



    BUT WAIT... THERE'S MORE!

    A more recent development had Skillz allegedly discover that AviaGames was running bots against its own winning players, crushing them out of any money they managed to rack up!

    It's all in that article linked above.


    Here's an ad for Skillz's Blackout Bingo:





    Here's an ad for AviaGames' Bingo Clash:





    Skillz is so butthurt over this that they are now posting notices in their games that AviaGames runs bots, and they're suing them!

    I believe Skillz is probably correct, and AviaGames is likely even shadier than they are. But do I feel sorry for Skillz? Not at all. This unethical company misleads users into believing their games will help them "earn extra cash", when in reality their awful "fair play algorithm" assures almost everyone loses in the medium and long term.

    Both companies suck.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. Replies: 32
    Last Post: 11-12-2020, 10:40 PM
  2. China Mac Reflects on 10-Year Bid Over Shooting Jin's Associate
    By GambleBotsSatire in forum Flying Stupidity
    Replies: 8
    Last Post: 03-21-2018, 05:28 PM
  3. What does it say about a hot chick, who has no hot friends?
    By NaturalBornHustler in forum Flying Stupidity
    Replies: 23
    Last Post: 01-02-2017, 11:46 AM
  4. It might get fucking hot here this year
    By cleatus in forum Flying Stupidity
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 02-04-2015, 01:33 AM
  5. Who is the smoking hot chick in the Fiat commercials?
    By JimmyG_415 in forum Flying Stupidity
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 03-15-2012, 07:26 PM