Key Points
- LOW6 has paid a chunk of cash for UK skill gaming firm Splash Games, no one’s saying exactly how much, for now, in a bid to turbocharge its Rivalz platform.
- Rivalz has already gone live with DraftKings in the US, now LOW6 is saying we can expect more top-tier operators to follow in the near future.
- To be honest, US skill gaming isn’t outside gambling law, Texas specifically has a few laws on the books that catch games where chance is involved.
From Giving Games Away To Charging For Them
For years now, LOW6 have been helping sportsbooks give games away for nothing. Now they want players to cough up an entry fee and go head to head for a prize pool. The company has picked up Splash Games for a sum that’s remaining under wraps, bringing in a team from Brighton that already had a real money tournament platform up and running.
Two of the brains behind Splash Games, Joshua Sprey and Gus Threlfall, founded the company. Their consumer platform, which hosted cash tournaments across casual titles such as Solitaire Splash, Bubble Splash and Word Splash, is now feeding its expertise straight into Rivalz, LOW6’s white-label product.
Sprey has joined LOW6 as its new Head of Commercial, Skill Gaming. His task now is to go out and convince operators, sports rights holders and entertainment brands to give their own brand a PvP game, preferably one with a healthy prize pool.
Rivalz Is Already Live With DraftKings
As far as some people were concerned, Rivalz was still waiting for its big US debut. But a closer look at LOW6’s own Rivalz skill gaming page paints a different picture. It seems the platform was actually built and launched with DraftKings, and now it just needs more of the top US operators to get on board. None have been announced yet, but we’re told that’s about to change.
It’s a pretty straightforward model. Players pay to enter, the entry fees get added to the prize pool, and the platform keeps a bit back for itself as its cut. Not only that, but that cut gets shared with the operator, who gets off scot-free when it comes to results.
The operators just need to stick Rivalz in through an API, and the rest is taken care of by LOW6. They’ll handle the contest management, compliance tooling and all the technical wizardry, leaving the operator free to focus on their own brand and design. Rivalz currently has a pretty eclectic mix of games, think blackjack, hold’em, 8 ball pool, colour sort and darts.
Jamie Mitchell, co-founder and CEO of LOW6, made it pretty clear what he thinks is at stake here:
“Our acquisition of Splash Games is a massive leap forward for us in the B2B white-label space, and we can’t wait to be launching with loads of global brands as we push the boundaries of this rapidly emerging market.”
Sprey reckons the time is finally right for Rivalz, saying that “the market is now ready to grow at a pace that’s going to really shake things up.”
How A Free-to-Play Company Decided On Real Money
It was free-to-play products that fuelled most of LOW6’s growth until now, making this shift quite radical for the company. In January 2022, the company closed a US$5 million pre-IPO round, which mostly went towards the US market expansion. The list of its partners included the PGA Tour, UFC and two NFL teams, namely the Jacksonville Jaguars and Cincinnati Bengals.
In June of 2022, LOW6 launched its B2B white-label platform for betting and media brands, where Toto and Jacks were the first to join. All the games on that platform from fantasy and picks to trivia and brackets were free-to-play.
Operators started funding the project soon. In October 2022, the Australian bookmaker BlueBet invested US$500,000 into the project, planning to launch its products on the platform over five years.
The UltimateFan franchise became the best-known for the company, reaching 250,000 installs by August 2023. Superbet became the first to partner with the Ultimate Squad, a spin-off of the Premier League and the Champions League games. WhoScored.com incorporated UltimateFan into its portfolio in January 2024, keeping the product free-to-play with optional in-app purchases.
There was nothing about paid PvP tournaments in any of the deals listed above. The Rivalz brand, launched in 2026, is the first time LOW6 clearly entered the real-money PvP games, getting a team with the necessary experience from Splash Games.
The Investors Are Piling Into The Same Sector
LOW6 is not the only company targeting this audience. In September, US operator Topdog raised US$2.5 million in seed funding, bringing its total amount to US$4.1 million. One of its investors is Nigel Eccles, the co-founder of FanDuel. Boston Seed Capital, Raine Group and Bullpen Capital, early investors of FanDuel and DraftKings, joined the fundraising as well.
There are some similarities in the names of the companies. Denver-based Splash Sports closed a US$14.5 million Series B in October 2025. It is a separate company with no connection to the Brighton-based company that LOW6 recently acquired.
Legal Issues Remaining Unaddressed By This Deal
According to LOW6, skill games do not fall under the gambling laws in the majority of US states. Moreover, NEXT.io’s Topdog report indicated that products in this category can legally be used in Texas and California. Neither of those arguments addresses the question of the legality of the entire category of games.
For example, in the Texas Penal Code Gambling Chapter, the term “bet” is defined as “winning or losing something of value solely or partially by chance”. The very same chapter makes playing any card game and betting on that game illegal.
Texas tried a similar argument in the past. In 2016, the Texas attorney general found daily fantasy sports to be illegal and classified it as a form of gambling under the same Gambling Chapter of the Texas Penal Code. FanDuel built its audience on this product in other states.
Expert Analysis: Smart Purchase Supported By Legal Controversies
LOW6 has chosen the right team to buy at the right time. Those who know how to build a business out of holding cash tournaments are much more valuable than any business plan. Also, a real-life launch of DraftKings gives Rivalz credibility which few start-ups can achieve.
The main problem we see here is in the wording. “No house risk” refers to the operator’s position, but not the player’s. Every tournament still requires players to put their money on the table and rake guarantees that no matter what happens, the platform will receive its share. It is better for the industry to say this openly.
We believe that the game list will provoke the most intense debates. While darts and pool are almost entirely based on skills, blackjack and hold’em involve a random distribution of cards. According to LOW6, Rivalz can launch in 38 US states. The card-related games are the last place regulators will stop if they are cautious.
The story of FanDuel deserves closer scrutiny too. The industry prefers to say that daily fantasy was developed outside of gambling legislation and later licensed. However, in Texas, it was declared illegal gambling. Once again, it proves that all it takes is one state ruling.
It does not mean that this purchase is a bad idea. It just means that LOW6 will need to pay attention to legal matters as carefully as to the game itself.
Explore more:
Share
5 views
