After underperforming the broader markets consistently over the last month, gaming stocks saw some recovery last week. The Roundhill Sports Betting & iGaming ETF, which invests in a basket of gaming companies, rose 1.17% last week, slightly ahead of the 0.88% rise in the S&P 500 Index.
Skillz and Genius Sports were among the major gainers last week, while Huya and Better Collective underperformed.
Biggest Gainers
Skillz (NYSE: SKLZ) +39%
With a 39% gain last week, Skillz was by far the best-performing stock in our coverage of gaming stocks. The company released its Q1 2026 earnings in the preceding week but held the earnings call last week on May 19.
The stock has been quite volatile this year, and the gains can largely be attributed to the legal victory in a false-advertising lawsuit against rival Papaya Gaming. Skillz accused Papaya of deceiving players by using bots in matches advertised as human vs. human.
A Manhattan federal jury found Papaya Gaming liable for false advertising and awarded Skillz $420 million in damages, which, for context, is the largest false advertising award under the Lanham Act in the US.
The jury also suggested that Skillz might be entitled to $652 million in “disgorgement” (the profits Papaya made from the practice). A judge is expected to rule on this amount in June 2026, and Skillz would have the option to choose either the damages or disgorgement if the judge decides the latter is valid.
There have been concerns over Papaya’s ability to pay that hefty an amount, as it is a private company, and we don’t have its financials in the public domain. During the earnings call, Skillz’s CEO and founder, Andrew Paradise, said that based on coverage of independent analysts, Papaya’s annual net revenues are between $950 million and $1.1 billion, which he stressed is a scale that “supports Papaya’s capacity to satisfy a judgment of this size.”
Genius Sports (NYSE: GENI) +26.18%
Genius Sports rose more than 26% last week, which helped it bridge its year-to-date losses to 51%. There wasn’t any major company-specific news last week, but earlier this month, the company released its Q1 2026 earnings and also completed the acquisition of Legend. While some analysts have been apprehensive about the deal and have lowered Skillz’s target price due to the acquisition, Genius Sports has been quite upbeat on the deal and believes that it would be immediately accretive to its group-adjusted EBITDA margins and free cash flow conversion.
During their Q1 earnings call, Genius raised its annual group adjusted EBITDA margin guidance to 28% versus the previous guidance of 23% to account for the Legend acquisition.
Corsair Gaming (NYSE: CRSR) +14.58%
With gains of nearly 15%, Corsair Gaming also made it to the list of last week’s top gainers. Earlier this month, the company released its Q1 earnings, beating on both the topline and the bottomline. It also maintained its annual guidance, expecting 2026 revenues to be between $335 million and $365 million, while projecting adjusted EBITDA between $100 million and $115 million.
Meanwhile, the bulk of last week’s gains came on Friday after it announced a new portfolio of artificial intelligence (AI) workstations and servers named Corsair PRO. Given the massive market appetite for anything related to AI hardware, this strategic expansion beyond consumer gaming peripherals and into enterprise-grade AI infrastructure helped buoy sentiments and pushed CRSR stock higher.
In her prepared remarks, Corsair CEO Thi La said, “This expansion moves CORSAIR into professional AI infrastructure, broadens our customer base, and positions us to capture higher-value system opportunities in AI compute.”
Biggest Losers
Huya Inc (NYSE: HUYA) -13.70%
Huya stock fell nearly 14% last week and erased its 2026 gains to turn negative for the year. The fall came amid broad-based selling in Chinese shares last week. Earlier this month, the company released its Q1 2026 earnings and missed on both the topline and the bottomline. Last week, it provided an update on its $50 million share buyback program, which would run until March 18, 2028.
The company’s acting CEO, Junhong Huang, expressed confidence in its outlook and said, “We believe the Company’s current market valuation does not fully reflect the progress we have made in expanding our game-related services ecosystem, improving our revenue structure and driving operational efficiency.” However, that assertion failed to cut ice with investors, and Huya closed deep in the red last week.
Better Collective (STO: BETCO) -13.12%
Better Collective shares also fell by over 13% last week. The loss could be attributed to the company’s interim Q1 2026 report. While its revenue rose 5% YoY to €86 million and came in slightly ahead of expectations, its EPS of €0.12 fell well short of Street expectations.
The management, however, maintained its full-year guidance and sees organic revenue growth between 7%-12%. It forecasts EBITDA before special items to rise by between 8%-18% this year and is targeting a net debt to EBITDA below 3x.
Zeal Network (FSE: TIMA) -6.17%
Zeal Network fell over 6% last week in part because the stock went ex-dividend, which invariably leads to a fall in share price to adjust for the dividend payout. Investors are still digesting the company’s Q1 2026 earnings report. While top-line revenue grew by 6% to €54.3 million, EBITDA dropped by 13% and net profit slid 15.5% down to €8.3 million. This profit squeeze was caused by a hefty 15.8% jump in total operating costs, led by a 21.4% increase in personnel expenses and a 13.3% rise in marketing.
Major Gaming Industry Developments
The prediction market industry continues to battle legal and regulatory uncertainty. Last week, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announced an investigation into Kalshi and Polymarket. Prompted by massive waves of capital tied to global conflicts and elections, Congress sent formal requests targeting identity verification systems, insider trading detection, and market surveillance systems. Lawmakers explicitly cited concerns over suspiciously timed trades ahead of military actions and political events.
The prediction industry is currently in a tug-of-war between explosive growth and intense regulatory pushback. There has been a turf war between states and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over the regulation of prediction markets. Last week, the CFTC filed a lawsuit against Minnesota after the state passed an outright ban on prediction markets.
Meanwhile, Kalshi sued Rhode Island in federal court, while the state retaliated by suing both Kalshi and Polymarket in state court to halt their operations. The industry continues to attract interest, though, and last week, sports betting operator Betr completed an acquisition of Ascent Capital Management, which would help advance its launch of prediction markets within the Betr app.
