SPLASH INC. ANNOUNCES ACQUISITION OF RUNYOURPOOL AND OFFICEFOOTBALLPOOL, LAUNCHES SPLASH SPORTS PEER-TO-PEER REAL MONEY GAMING PLATFORM

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Jun 05, 2023, 08:07 ET

With 2.2M Active Players, Splash Sports Emerges from Stealth as a Major Player in Real Money Gaming for This Upcoming NFL Season

DENVER, June 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Splash Inc. ("Splash," formerly known as BetterPool) announced today their acquisition of RunYourPool (RYP) and OfficeFootballPool (OFP) alongside the launch of their real money gaming platform SplashSports.com (Splash Sports).

Operating in stealth since inception, Splash Inc. acquired RYP and OFP, the two long-standing leaders in the office pool space, in late 2021, and has quietly built their audience from 600K to 2.2M active users over the last 18 months to become one of the largest entertainment-only gaming providers in the US. The sports pool space has been around for decades, with over 60M Americans playing each year and over an estimated $10B wagered, albeit mostly offline.

The company's newest offering, Splash Sports, is a real-money gaming platform built for friends and groups to compete in games of skill, bringing the sports pool space to the modern age. Currently in private beta, Splash Sports provides a much-needed alternative to traditional wagering options in the United States. Unlike most operators, Splash Sports does not allow games against the house and is entirely focused on empowering commissioners (contest organizers) to safely and legally run their own peer-to-peer contests without the hassle of chasing down entry fees and paying out winners.

"A trend we've seen in real money gaming is that players are tired of giving money 'to the house.' It is almost impossible to consistently beat the book, and those who do win get their accounts limited or shut down. Our focus is providing the platform for commissioners to run their own games and we truly don't care who wins. We think playing in a peer-to-peer setting is not only more fun, but also more fair," said TJ Ross, co-founder at Splash Sports.

Splash Sports provides commissioners with all the tools they need to easily run a successful contest, including simple contest creation, easily shareable invites, dynamic live scoring, and handling of all entry fees and payouts to winners. Beyond running the contest itself, Splash Sports makes it easy for commissioners to build communities by giving them their own commissioner page with a user profile, a list of all their contests, the ability to post content, and a follow button so their players never miss a contest or piece of content from their favorite commissioners.

"Sports are more fun with your friends," said Joel Milton, co-founder at Splash Sports, "and the popularity of fantasy football, survivor pools, and March Madness brackets, show that players want to compete against people they know. Whereas operators struggle to integrate social elements into their product experience, pools are inherently social, which results in a far stickier product than an individual user betting against the house. From a business perspective, lower customer acquisition costs and higher retention are two key metrics that help Splash Sports stand out in this competitive industry."

Splash Sports is backed by a number of leading venture firms, including Accomplice, Acies Investments, Elysian Park Ventures, Velvet Sea Ventures, and Boston Seed Capital, along with prominent angels like Theo Epstein, Doc O'Connor, Jonathan Kraft, Mike Gordon and Sam Kennedy (Fenway Sports Group), Alex Morgan (US Women's National Team soccer star and 3x Olympian), and various other sports team owners, professional sports bettors, and other investors and operators in sports, entertainment and tech.

Splash Sports' veteran executive team, led by Ross and Milton, boasts extensive gaming and DFS experience, and includes alumni from DraftKings, FanDuel, PointsBet, and Barstool/Penn, among other international sports gaming platforms.

"Peer-to-peer contests are the sleeping giant of the gaming industry. By handling payments, Splash Sports brings a huge market from offline to online, and removes friction that will allow the market to grow even bigger," said Ryan Moore of Accomplice.

Cole Van Nice of Elysian Park Ventures added, "Splash Sports was the first consumer sports betting business we've seen in the last few years that felt truly differentiated because of its focus on community-based pools. This gives the platform the ability to tap into existing social networks and offer a more durable form of access and engagement. Splash Sports is a true peer-to-peer marketplace, not a traditional operator."

The Splash Sports platform will provide:

The Best Gameplay for Peer-to-Peer Contests. Splash Sports facilitates competition among friends and peers, and unlike the traditional sportsbooks, has no stake in the outcome of the game. We've built world-class gameplay experience including easy and customizable contest creation, dynamic player and team selection, live scoring, and social chat.
Safe and Secure Deposits and Payouts. Splash Sports is built with state-of-the-art security protocols and features a user-friendly interface for deposits and payouts, eliminating the friction of taking and distributing payments offline.
Community Building and Social Tools for Commissioners. Splash Sports has built tools to make it easy for commissioners to build a community. This includes a commissioner page where users can follow/subscribe to posts and new contests.
Commissioner Rewards and Incentives: Splash Sports is building out a first of its kind incentive and rewards program for Commissioners that actually rewards commissioners for running contests and bringing users onto the platform.

Splash Sports will launch publicly in July, in time for the NFL season. For more information and to sign up for updates, please visit www.splashsports.com.

About Splash Inc.:

Splash Inc. is transforming the gaming economy through innovative technology and community-driven experiences. Our products include entertainment only sites RunYourPool and OfficeFootballPool, along with Splash Sports, the leading sports gaming platform built specifically for friends and groups to safely compete for real money. For more information about Splash Sports, visit splashsports.com or follow the company on Discord.

Splash Sports is available to residents of AK, AL, AR, CA, CO, D.C., FL, GA, IL, KS, KY, MA, MD, MN, NC, NE, NH, NM, OK, OR, RI, SC, SD, TX, UT, VT, WI, WV, WY who are at least 18 years old or the age of contest eligibility in their jurisdiction (whichever occurs later) at the time of entry.

SOURCE Splash Inc.