Rush Street Interactive revenue, profits leap in first quarter
Revenue, profitability and cash flow for Rush Street Interactive jumped by double and even triple digits in the first quarter of 2026. The results were announced late on 28 April and prompted RSI to increase its full-year earnings guidance.
Revenue leapt 41% to US$370.4 million from US$262.4 million in the first quarter of 2025. Profits catapulted 134% over the same timespan, going from US$11.2 million to US$26.2 million.
Cash flow vaulted 81%, reaching US$60.2 million, up from US$33.2 million. Revenue per monthly active user was US$317 on average for the US and Canada, and US$54 per player in Latin America.
Monthly active users grew 51% to 839,000. About 296,000 were in the US and Canada, up 46%. That was driven, according to RSI, by 62% growth in igaming players.
Players in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America numbered 543,000. That was an increase of 54% year-over-year.
RSI raised its revenue guidance for 2026 to about US$1.5 billion, an increase of 31% from 2025. Cash-flow projections were elevated to between US$230 million and US$250 million, which would be growth of 50% to 63%.
“The continued acceleration we’ve seen in revenue and player growth is particularly exciting,” Chief Executive Richard Schwartz said in a prepared statement. “We’ve now achieved accelerating year-over-year player growth in each of the last four quarters, reflecting the strength in our business.”
Schwartz continued, “we also achieved record first-time depositors this quarter while maintaining disciplined marketing spend, showcasing our expanding brand awareness and the efficiency we’ve built into our customer acquisition and retention model.”
In conclusion, Schwartz said, “looking ahead, we have tremendous confidence in our trajectory. We’re executing well, growing our player base rapidly and profitably, and preparing for an exciting new market launch in Alberta,” scheduled for July.
David McKee is an award-winning journalist who has three decades of experience covering the gaming industry.
Verticals:
Sectors:
Topics:
Dig Deeper
Related stories
The Backstory
From steady gains to a breakout year
Rush Street Interactive’s first-quarter surge caps a run of escalating performance that began in early 2025 and accelerated through the back half of the year. After reversing a loss and posting double-digit growth in revenue and cash flow in the first quarter of 2025, the company kept layering on improvements. In the second quarter, profits swung sharply higher and revenue rose more than 20%, prompting an initial lift to full-year guidance, as detailed in Rush Street revenues and profits skyrocket. The trajectory held in the third quarter, when the operator logged its best Q3 on record and touted the 10th straight period of revenue growth. That performance was laid out in Rush Street Interactive revenue spikes in third quarter, which underscored a core theme of the past year: igaming-led expansion in North America fueling headline results while Latin America expands the customer base at lower average spend.
Underpinning the trend is a playbook that favors markets where the company can deploy its full suite—online casino alongside sports betting—and then compound returns through improved retention and cross-sell. That approach, reinforced quarter after quarter with higher average revenue per user in North America and disciplined marketing, set the stage for the latest quarter’s step-change in revenue, profitability and cash generation.
North America’s igaming engine drives consistency
Rush Street’s recent history shows consistent outperformance where online casino is legal and scaled. In the second quarter of last year, leadership highlighted that igaming revenue rose 25% year over year, supporting a broad lift in monthly active users in the United States and Canada, according to the company’s second-quarter report. That trend deepened into the third quarter, when North American monthly active users climbed about one third and average monthly revenue per user stayed well north of US$350, as described in the Q3 update. Management also called out strong growth in key states and provinces—Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ontario—signaling that the strategy of emphasizing igaming-led jurisdictions continues to pay off. Additional color from the third-quarter outlook call pointed to high player value and retention in igaming, as well as a deliberate pace in pursuing new products such as pooled online poker as a gateway to cross-sell into casino and sports.
The consistency matters in a category vulnerable to sporting results volatility. Even through a period shaped by unfavorable outcomes around the Super Bowl and March Madness, Rush Street reported that sports betting revenue still grew double digits while online casino advanced faster, as noted in Rush Street Interactive surmounts adverse sporting results. The mix shift toward casino has provided ballast, smoothing out sports-betting swings and supporting the operating leverage that is now showing up in higher profits and cash flow.
Latin America expands the base amid tax friction
Latin America remains a volume story with nearer-term margin headwinds but long-term upside. The user base in Colombia, Mexico and other markets has grown faster than in North America over the past year, supported by product localization and measured marketing. However, country-specific taxes have weighed on monetization. In Colombia, a double-digit value-added tax led Rush Street to absorb costs with heavier bonusing to protect player engagement. Executives walked through the trade-offs during the third-quarter outlook, noting that the tax inflated churn and bonus expense. They also highlighted that the levy is expected to sunset unless extended by congress, a scenario management viewed as unlikely.
Mexico presents a similar calculus, with potential tax increases on the horizon discussed on the same call. Even so, the company has stressed that Mexico is tracking ahead of Colombia’s historical curve and could ultimately become the larger market. Earlier in the year, Rush Street said international revenue rose about 50% in both Mexico and Colombia despite the tax drag, according to the first-quarter earnings discussion. The takeaway: Latin America continues to scale players, offering a wide funnel for future monetization once tax regimes stabilize and product refinements compound.
Guidance ratchets higher as execution compounds
Throughout 2025, each successive quarter brought more confidence in the full-year outlook. After starting the year with revenue guidance around US$1 billion to just under US$1.1 billion, as reported in the first-quarter 2025 report, Rush Street raised its targets midyear when profits and cash flow beat internal plans, per the second-quarter update. By the third quarter, management again lifted guidance on sustained growth in igaming markets and a tight handle on sales and marketing spend, according to the Q3 filing. That pattern—deliver growth, convert it to profits and cash, and then reset expectations higher—set the foundation for this year’s more ambitious targets.
Management has tied the stronger outlook to several drivers: accelerating player growth in North America’s online casino markets; record first-time depositors achieved without outsized marketing; and a disciplined focus on jurisdictions where it can deploy its full product suite. The pending Alberta launch, flagged in prior calls and now slated for midyear, adds an incremental catalyst as the province moves to open online sports betting and casino, consistent with commentary in the company’s first-quarter discussion.
Balance sheet strength and measured buybacks
Rush Street’s cash position and debt-free balance sheet have been consistent features of its recent earnings narrative. The company ended multiple quarters with more than US$200 million in cash and reiterated a preference for flexibility over programmatic repurchases. In the third-quarter outlook call, leadership framed buybacks as opportunistic, preserving cash for market entries and product investments. That stance followed modest repurchases through the year, including in the second quarter, when the company bought back shares while still raising guidance, as noted in the Q2 report. Earlier, Rush Street cited its cash reserve and lack of leverage as strategic assets for weathering volatility and funding growth, a point also emphasized in the first-quarter call.
The capital approach aligns with the operating model: emphasize durable returns in regulated igaming, reinvest in product and player experience, and add markets where the full suite can be launched. With higher cash flow now compounding, the company has more options to accelerate that playbook without stretching the balance sheet.
Policy tailwinds and product priorities
The policy backdrop remains a swing factor. Rush Street has argued that budget pressures and the spread of gray-market alternatives could spur more U.S. states to legalize igaming. Leadership has been cautious around untested categories like prediction markets and critical of sweepstakes models, but sees both as arguments for expanding regulated online casino, as discussed during the third-quarter outlook. In Canada, Alberta’s push to open its market adds a tangible near-term driver. Across Latin America, tax developments in Colombia and Mexico will influence monetization curves but haven’t altered the company’s commitment to the region’s long-run potential.
Product remains the through line. The company has repeatedly pointed to differentiation in the online casino experience, faster game deployment and targeted cross-sell—poker as a gateway among them—as levers for sustaining growth. That focus, coupled with disciplined marketing and a fortress balance sheet, explains how Rush Street entered this year with momentum and why its first-quarter results reset expectations again.
