Rush Street Interactive, Inc. 2026 Q3 Earnings Call

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon. By now, everyone should have access to our third quarter 2026 earnings release. It can be found under the heading Financials, Quarterly Results in the Investors section of the RSI website at rushstreetinteractive.com. Some of our comments will be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements are not statements of historical fact and are usually identified by the use of words such as will, expect, should, or other similar phrases, and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we expect. We assume no responsibility for updating any forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should exercise caution in interpreting and relying on them. We refer you to our SEC filings for a more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact our future operating results and financial condition.

During the call, we will discuss our non-GAAP measures, which we believe can be useful in evaluating the company's operating performance. These measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for our financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP. We will be discussing adjusted EBITDA, which we define as net income or loss before interest, income taxes, depreciation, amortization, share-based compensation, adjustments for certain one-time or non-recurring items, and other adjustments that are either non-cash or not related to our underlying business performance. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure is available in our third quarter 2026 earnings release and our investor deck, which is available in the Investors section of the RSI website at rushstreetinteractive.com.

For purposes of today's call, unless noted otherwise, when discussing profitability, EBITDA, or other income statement measures other than revenue, we're referring to those items on a non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA basis. With me on the call today, we have Richard Schwartz, Chief Executive Officer, who will first provide some opening remarks and then open the call for questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Richard.

Thanks, Kyle, and good afternoon, everyone. In the third quarter, we generated revenue of $385.9 million, up 39% year-over-year, and adjusted EBITDA of $62.2 million, up 73% year-over-year. Our casino-first strategy and strong performance in Latin America were the two cornerstones of our third quarter results, supported by the consistent execution across the entire business. Kyle will walk you through the financial results in greater detail, but we're proud of the growth and scale we have achieved over the last few years. Online casinos remains the foundation of our business model, and it was once again the core driver of growth and profitability this quarter. We are also pleased with the continued engagement we see across our platform in both online sports and poker.

These complementary products allow us to expand upon our brand awareness and reach a wider base of players that are looking for a high-quality, engaging, and customer-centric gaming experience while also contributing to our overall profitability. Online casino represented 75% of our revenue this quarter, while online sports betting contributed most of the remaining 25%. We have found this mix as a strength for our business as the retention, engagement, and LTVs of our online casino players are key drivers of our consistent growth. Turning to player counts. Year-over-year growth remains solid across both regions. Monthly active users in North America reached over 300,000, a record quarterly high, representing 34% year-over-year growth, and once again, driven by the strength of our North American online casino markets. Latin American MAUs were up 46% year-over-year to over 607,000.

As you would expect, this is below the World Cup-driven peak in the second quarter, but still our second highest quarterly level of all time. First-time depositors for the company also came in at our second highest level of all time, which is encouraging results of our targeted marketing efforts that we strategically ramped up in the quarter due to attractive player acquisition costs. Taking a step back, I think it's important to put our results in context of what we are seeing in the broader industry trends. During the third quarter, North American online casino and sports markets saw a more measured pace of growth. As their publicly available state data shows, this affected the industry broadly. Within our player cohorts, this moderation growth has been broad-based rather than concentrated in any one segment of players.

We feel good about the fact that we have continued to not only grow fast, but to grow our share of the North American online casino market year-over-year. Online casino remains a large and attractive category, and we continue to see meaningful opportunities for further growth ahead. With respect to the World Cup, as the finals took place in July, our third quarter results included some contribution from this worldwide event. The key takeaway isn't the tournament itself, but rather the player acquisition opportunity it represented. It was a highly successful event for us, driving significant growth in our player base. When compared to the Copa América from two years ago, we acquired significantly more players, retained them at a similar rate, but the average value of these players post-event has been more valuable from World Cup acquisition than those acquired during the Copa América two years ago.

We've also seen much better cross-sell to online casino, driving continued outsized growth in that product category during Q3. More broadly, in Latin America, we continued to see healthy performance across Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. Net revenue in LatAm held steady with the record level we set in Q2, while also growing more than 200% year-over-year. Keep in mind, last year's results were impacted by the headwinds created by the VAT-related bonusing we offered in Colombia. Regarding gaming taxes in Colombia, on October 20, the Colombian government approved the country's 2027 budget, which did not include any new taxes on the gaming industry. We will continue to actively monitor for any new legislation that could impact our industry. However, as of now, the gaming tax is expected to revert back to the original gaming tax rate of 15%.

We are still operating under the assumption that the 16% excise tax will be in place through the remainder of 2026. Because this tax was imposed via an emergency decree, it is scheduled to expire at year-end. Last quarter, we announced our launch in Alberta. We are now more than three months past our July 13 launch, and we remain encouraged by what we are seeing. On a population-adjusted basis, first-time depositors and daily active users are tracking at over 2 times the levels we saw in Ontario at the same point following its launch, and our player acquisition economics remain attractive. Similar to our experience in Ontario, we expect this market to be a gradual build and revenue development will take time, but we continue to view Alberta as a meaningful long-term opportunity.

Looking beyond our existing footprint, online casino legalization remains one of the most meaningful long-term opportunities for RSI. Only approximately 12% of the U.S. population currently has access to regulated online casino, and states are facing increasing fiscal pressure, including from reductions in federal financial support. Historically, in the states that have taken action, online casino has proven to be a very significant and reliable source of tax revenue, generating many multiples more than online sports betting. At the same time, unregulated sweepstakes and other gray market products continue to proliferate, creating enforcement challenges for regulators, failing to protect consumers, and generating no tax revenue for the states. As I've shared before, prediction markets are also raising awareness among lawmakers about the importance of protecting state revenue streams, which we view as another potential catalyst for new legislation.

We continue to work to educate legislators on the benefits of regulated online casino, not only for licensed operators such as ourselves, but most importantly, for consumers and states. As we look to the fourth quarter and beyond, we remain confident in the strength and momentum of our business. We're executing well across our core markets, and we see continued opportunities ahead in North America and Latin America. With that, I'll turn it back to Kyle to discuss the financial details.

Thanks, Richard. Now let me walk through the details of our third quarter performance. We generated revenue of $385.9 million in the third quarter, representing 39% year-over-year growth. Continued execution in two of our primary areas of focus, iCasino and Latin America, helped drive this growth. iCasino revenues, which represent 75% of our total revenue, grew 32% year-over-year. Online sports betting, which represents almost 25% of our total revenue, also showed strength, growing 70% year-over-year, driven primarily by Latin America and the World Cup. Regionally, revenue in North America grew 14%, and revenue in Latin America grew 218%. Notably in Latin America, year-over-year growth surpassed 200% in both online sports and iCasino. Gross margins for the quarter came in at 36.4%, up 240 basis points from the prior year period and up over 90 basis points from the second quarter.

Our continuing margin expansion is reflective of our faster growth in higher-margin markets where we are making more of our marketing investments. As discussed on our prior call, our strong marketing efficiency and attractive player acquisition costs have driven us to increase our marketing spend in the second half of 2026. During the third quarter, marketing expenses were $54.7 million, reflecting an increase of 44% year-over-year and representing 14.2% of revenue, compared to 13.7% in the prior year period. We continue to see attractive returns on spend, with cost to acquire players still at the lowest rates we've seen. Even with new player expected values being lower than in previous years, we are still well within our anticipated payback periods. G&A for the third quarter was $23.6 million, or 6.1% of revenue, compared to 7.3% in the prior year period.