Firy Inc. (FIRY) scores $719M disgorgement in Papaya false advertising case
Rhea-AI Filing Summary
Firy Inc., through its wholly owned subsidiary Skillz Platform Inc., obtained a federal court order stating that judgment will be entered against Papaya Gaming for $719 million in disgorgement of unjust profits, plus certain attorney’s fees and costs, arising from a 2024 false advertising lawsuit under the federal Lanham Act and New York General Business Law.
The $719 million disgorgement, identified by both the jury and the court as the appropriate measure of recovery, is in lieu of the $420 million in actual damages awarded by a unanimous jury in April 2026. The court denied all of Papaya’s post-trial motions and awarded approximately $10 million in attorney’s fees for 2024 and 2025, with additional litigation costs tied to Papaya executives’ invocation of the Fifth Amendment. Firy plans to vigorously pursue collection of the judgment, while noting there is no assurance regarding the timing or amount of any ultimate recovery, including in light of any appeal or further proceedings.
Positive
- $719 million disgorgement judgment plus approximately $10 million in attorney’s fees were awarded in favor of Firy’s subsidiary, with the court denying all of Papaya Gaming’s post-trial motions in a major false advertising case.
Negative
- None.
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8-K Event Classification
2 items: 7.01, 9.01
2 items
Item 7.01
Regulation FD Disclosure
Disclosure
Material non-public information disclosed under Regulation Fair Disclosure, often investor presentations or guidance.
Item 9.01
Financial Statements and Exhibits
Exhibits
Financial statements, pro forma financial information, and exhibit attachments filed with this report.
Key Figures
Disgorgement Judgment: $719 million
Prior Jury Damages Award: $420 million
Increase Over Jury Award: nearly $300 million, 71%
+4 more
7 metrics
Disgorgement Judgment
$719 million
Amount the court will enter as judgment against Papaya Gaming to Skillz Platform Inc.
Prior Jury Damages Award
$420 million
Actual damages awarded by a unanimous jury in April 2026 under the Lanham Act
Increase Over Jury Award
nearly $300 million, 71%
Stated increase of the $719 million disgorgement over the April 2026 jury award
Advertised Prize Money
$6.7 billion
Total prize money Papaya advertised between 2021 and 2024
Unpaid Advertised Prizes
approximately $4.7 billion
Portion of the $6.7 billion advertised prizes allegedly not paid to customers
Bot vs Human Participants
13+ million bots vs ~11 million humans
Comparison of bot participants to real human players cited in evidence
Awarded Attorney’s Fees
approximately $10 million
Attorney’s fees awarded to the company for 2024 and 2025
Key Terms
disgorgement of unjust profits, Lanham Act, post-trial motions, injunctive relief, +1 more
5 terms
disgorgement of unjust profits regulatory
"judgment against Papaya Gaming of $719 million in disgorgement of Papaya's unjust profits"
Lanham Act regulatory
"false advertising lawsuit was filed in 2024 against Papaya Gaming for violations of the federal Lanham Act"
A federal law that sets the rules for protecting trademarks, preventing false advertising, and stopping unfair competition in the U.S.; think of it as the legal lock and guard that helps businesses keep exclusive use of their brand names, logos and product claims. Investors care because Lanham Act cases can affect a company’s brand value, sales and reputation, and they can trigger costly lawsuits or settlements that change future revenue and risk.
post-trial motions regulatory
"The Court has now denied all of Papaya's post-trial motions challenging the verdict."
injunctive relief regulatory
"A separate opinion addressing the Company's request for injunctive relief is forthcoming."
A court-ordered instruction requiring a person or company to do or stop doing a specific action to prevent harm or preserve a situation. For investors, injunctive relief can immediately alter a business’s operations, block sales or product use, or preserve assets—like a referee pausing play to prevent unfair advantage—so it can swiftly affect revenue, legal exposure and share value while longer legal battles continue.
Fifth Amendment regulatory
"litigation costs arising from Papaya executives' invocation of the Fifth Amendment during discovery."
A constitutional right in the United States that lets a person refuse to answer questions or provide information that could incriminate them, commonly called "pleading the Fifth." It also includes protections against being tried twice for the same crime and against unjust government seizure of property. For investors, its use by executives or witnesses in regulatory or legal probes can signal legal risk or uncertainty about a company’s disclosures, similar to someone declining to comment while under scrutiny.
AI-generated analysis. How Rhea-AI works. Not financial advice.
FAQ
What judgment did Firy Inc. (FIRY) receive against Papaya Gaming?
A U.S. federal court ordered Papaya Gaming to pay $719 million in disgorgement of unjust profits to Skillz Platform Inc., plus certain attorney’s fees and costs. This stems from a 2024 false advertising lawsuit under the federal Lanham Act and New York General Business Law.
How does the $719 million judgment for FIRY compare to the earlier jury award?
The $719 million disgorgement replaces a prior $420 million actual damages award from an April 2026 unanimous jury verdict. The company states this increases its potential recovery by nearly $300 million, or about 71% above the original jury award.
What did the court decide about Papaya Gaming’s post-trial challenges in the FIRY case?
The court denied all of Papaya Gaming’s post-trial motions challenging the April 2026 verdict. It also awarded approximately $10 million in attorney’s fees for 2024 and 2025, plus certain litigation costs tied to Papaya executives’ invocation of the Fifth Amendment during discovery.
What conduct was at issue in Firy Inc. (FIRY) vs. Papaya Gaming?
A unanimous jury found Papaya’s advertising was false. Evidence showed that between 2021 and 2024, about 70% of $6.7 billion in advertised prize money, roughly $4.7 billion, was not paid to customers because bots rather than human players won the prizes.
Is Firy Inc. (FIRY) guaranteed to collect the full $719 million judgment?
No. The company plans to vigorously pursue full collection but states there is no assurance regarding the timing or amount of any ultimate recovery, including potential effects of any appeal or further proceedings related to the judgment.
What additional relief is Firy Inc. (FIRY) seeking in the Papaya Gaming case?
Beyond monetary relief, Firy has requested injunctive relief. The court noted that a separate opinion addressing the company’s request for injunctive relief is forthcoming, so any non-monetary measures have not yet been detailed in this disclosure.
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 8-K
CURRENT REPORT
PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE
SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): July 27, 2026
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
| (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation) | (Commission File Number) | (IRS Employer Identification No.) | ||||||||||||
(Address of principal executive offices, including zip code)
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (415 ) 762-0511
Not Applicable
(Former name or former address, if changed since last report)
Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions:
| Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425) | |||||
| Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12) | |||||
| Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b)) | |||||
| Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c)) | |||||
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
| Title of each class | Trading Symbol(s) | Name of each exchange on which registered | ||||||||||||
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933 (§230.405 of this chapter) or Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (§240.12b-2 of this chapter).
Emerging growth company ☐
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Item 7.01. Regulation FD Disclosure.
On July 27, 2026, Judge Denise Cote of the United States District Court of the Southern District of New York entered an Opinion and Order stating that it will enter judgment against Papaya Gaming (“Papaya”) for $719 million in disgorgement of unjust profits to Firy Inc.’s (the “Company”) wholly owned subsidiary, Skillz Platform Inc., plus an award of certain attorney’s fees and costs. The Opinion and Order was issued in connection with the a false advertising lawsuit Skillz Platform Inc. filed against Papaya in 2024 for violations of the federal Lanham Act and the New York General Business Law.
The Company intends to vigorously pursue full collection of the judgment; however, no assurance can be given as to the timing or amount of any ultimate recovery, including in light of any appeal or further proceedings.
On July 28, 2026, the Company issued a press release announcing the post-trial order. A copy of the press release is attached to this Current Report on Form 8-K as Exhibit 99.1 and is incorporated by reference herein.
The information in this Item 7.01 (including Exhibit 99.1) shall not be deemed “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), or otherwise subject to the liabilities under that Section, and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any filing of the Company under the Securities Act of 1933 or the Exchange Act, except as shall be expressly set forth by specific reference in such filing.
Item 9.01. Financial Statements and Exhibits.
| (d) | Exhibits. | ||||||||||||||||
| Exhibit Number | Description | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 99.1 | Press Release, dated July 28, 2026. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 104 | Cover Page Interactive Data File (embedded within the XBRL document) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.
| FIRY INC. | ||||||||
| By: | /s/ Todd A. Valli | |||||||
| Name: | Todd A. Valli | |||||||
| Title: | Chief Accounting Officer | |||||||
Date: July 28, 2026 | ||||||||
Exhibit 99.1 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FEDERAL COURT ORDERS PAPAYA GAMING TO PAY $719 MILLION TO SKILLZ PLATFORM INC., A FIRY (NYSE: FIRY) COMPANY, DISGORGING ITS UNJUST PROFITS FROM FALSE ADVERTISING RULING INCREASES SKILLZ'S RECOVERY BY NEARLY $300 MILLION, 71% ABOVE THE APRIL JURY AWARD. COURT REJECTS ALL OF PAPAYA'S POST-TRIAL CHALLENGES IN THE LARGEST FALSE ADVERTISING CASE IN U.S. HISTORY LAS VEGAS – July 28, 2026 – Firy Inc. (NYSE: FIRY) ("FIRY"), formerly Skillz Inc., today announced a post-trial victory over Papaya Gaming: the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an order stating that it will enter judgment against Papaya Gaming of $719 million in disgorgement of Papaya's unjust profits to FIRY's wholly owned subsidiary, Skillz Platform Inc. (the "Company"), plus an award of certain attorney's fees and costs, nearly $300 million more than the jury's April award. The false advertising lawsuit was filed in 2024 against Papaya Gaming for violations of the federal Lanham Act and the New York General Business Law. "We founded this industry and built its biggest and best company on one value above all others: honor," said Andrew Paradise, CEO and Founder of FIRY. "When growth stalled, investors decided our moat was a story. It was not. In a winner-take-most market, Papaya could not beat us fairly, so it used bots to fake the competition we invented. This judgment sets the record straight. The moat was real. Fourteen years in, on our path to one hundred, Skillz is back to defining what this industry was built for: fair, fun and meaningful competition." The $719 million disgorgement, found by both the jury and the Court as the appropriate measure of recovery, was entered in lieu of the $420 million in actual damages awarded in April 2026, as the Company is entitled to recover once for its injury. A unanimous federal jury found Papaya's advertising was false. The evidence showed that between 2021 and 2024, approximately 70% of the $6.7 billion in prize money Papaya advertised, roughly $4.7 billion, was never actually paid to customers because Papaya's bots "won" the prizes instead. Papaya's more than 13 million bot participants outnumbered its roughly 11 million real human players. In April 2026, the jury awarded the Company $420 million in actual damages, the largest false advertising verdict in U.S. history under the Lanham Act. The Court has now denied all of Papaya's post-trial motions challenging the verdict. The Court also awarded the Company approximately $10 million in attorney's fees for 2024 and 2025. Separately, the Court awarded certain litigation costs arising from Papaya executives' invocation of the Fifth Amendment during discovery. A separate opinion addressing the Company's request for injunctive relief is forthcoming. The Company intends to vigorously pursue full collection of the judgment; however, no assurance can be given as to the timing or amount of any ultimate recovery, including in light of any appeal or further proceedings.
About Firy Inc. FIRY is a global holding company built to fuel business potential. Through its growing portfolio, including Skillz, RZR, and Beamable, FIRY operates at the intersection of content, identity, commerce, and performance marketing. By leveraging first-party data, enterprise-scale infrastructure, and scalable operating systems, FIRY enables scalable growth while maintaining a disciplined focus on capital efficiency and long-term value creation. About Skillz (a FIRY company) Skillz is a leading mobile games platform dedicated to bringing out the best in everyone through competition. The Skillz platform helps developers create multi-million-dollar franchises by enabling social competition in their games. Leveraging its patented technology, Skillz hosts billions of tournaments for millions of mobile players worldwide, with the goal of building the home of competition for all. Skillz has been recognized by Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators, CNBC’s Disruptor 50, Forbes’ Next Billion-Dollar Startups, Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, and the Inc. 5000 list of fastest- growing companies in America. For more information, visit www.skillz.com. About RZR (a FIRY company) RZR powers performance for the world’s most ambitious brands through proprietary neural architecture that optimizes across user acquisition, retargeting, and CTV campaigns as one connected performance system. With four owned-and-operated data centers that process 6M+ queries per second, RZR turns signals into strategy and impressions into impact. Trusted by brands across gaming, consumer, food and beverage, retail, and entertainment. Built on over a decade of performance data and backed by AI and ML experts and industry veterans across offices in San Francisco, New York, London, Bangalore, Beijing, Manila, and Seoul. RZR delivers retention-led growth intelligence: faster, sharper, and built for performance at scale. About Beamable (a FIRY company) Beamable is a modern game backend and LiveOps platform purpose-built for scalable, live-service games. Designed to help developers focus on creativity instead of infrastructure, Beamable offers identity management, microservices, LiveOps tooling, analytics, content management, meta-game systems, and AI-native tooling, all built to integrate seamlessly with popular game engines. Within the FIRY portfolio, Beamable’s backend and live-operations technology pairs with Skillz’s competition, payments, and player-identity systems to give developers opportunities to build, operate, and monetize games at scale. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements include all statements other than statements of historical fact, including but not limited to statements regarding the litigation with Papaya Gaming, or appeal, the timing and amount of any recovery, and our strategy. Additional information regarding factors that could materially affect results and the accuracy of the forward-looking statements contained herein may be found in FIRY’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, filed with the SEC on March 31, 2026 and in our subsequent filings with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. FIRY undertakes no obligation to
republish revised forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Media Contact: Seth Medvin, Head of Communications smedvin@firy.com comms@firy.com Investor Contact: Richard Land/Devon Chase Alliance Advisors Investor Relations FIRY_IR@allianceadvisors.com