Betting and igaming operator Rush Street Interactive (RSI) has raised its full-year guidance after reporting a 217.6% year-on-year increase in revenue during the first quarter of the year.
Revenue for the three months through to March 31 amounted to $111.8m, up from $35.2m in the same period last year and representing a new quarterly record for the operator.
RSI, which has generated record revenue in each quarter since Q2 of 2019, said ongoing growth within the business was primarily down to a sustained strong performance of its online casino division. The operator said online casino will continue to drive growth for the rest of 2021 and beyond.
Though RSI did not publish a full breakdown of revenue performance for its different divisions, it did state that online casino generated more revenue than online sports betting in three of its core states: Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
In Michigan, online casino outperformed sports betting by 78.3% to 21.7%, while in New Jersey the split was 70.1% to 29.9% and in Pennsylvania 78.3% to 21.7%.
Average monthly active users across RSI’s platforms was up 166.0% year-on-year, while average revenue per active monthly user also increased 21.0%.
RSI launched its online casino and sportsbook in Michigan and online sportsbook in Virginia in Q1, as well as its BetRivers flagship online casino brand in the state of West Virginia in April, meaning the operator is now active in 11 states across the US.
“We are excited about our strong first quarter results, during which we delivered revenue growth of 218% over last year’s first quarter,” RSI chief executive Greg Carlin said. “We are also pleased by our quarter-on-quarter growth, underpinned by our strong and stable casino results.
“We continue to have solid momentum as we launched online casino in West Virginia in April and are now live in the four largest US online casino markets, which we expect to drive significant profitability over the long term.”
Turning to costs, operating spend was up 189.2% year-on-year to $139.1m. This was due to a 255.8% rise in revenue costs to $79.7m, attributed to its expanded operations, as well as a 396.5% to $42.2m to support its growth efforts.
Higher spending led to an operating loss of $27.3m, more than double the $12.9m loss in Q1 of 2020.
However, RSI benefitted from a $41.8m positive impact from changes in fair value of its warrant liabilities and despite a $13.7m negative hit from changes in the fair value of its earnout payment liabilities, net other income amounted to $28.0m. This pushed profit before tax up to $728,000, compared to a $12.9m loss last year.
After paying $804,000 in tax and accounting for a $59,000 net loss attributable to its non-controlling interests, RSI ended the quarter with a net loss of just $17,000, much lower than the $12.9m loss posted in Q1 of 2020.
As a result of its Q1 performance, RSI raised its full-year revenue guidance from between $420.0m and $460.0m to a range of $440.0m to $480.0m. The midpoint of the revised range would represent a 65.2%year-over-year increase when compared to $278.5m in 2020.
“This increase reflects RSI’s strong Q1 2021 results and anticipated growth in recently opened and existing markets resulting from increased marketing spend funded with cash on hand,” RSI said.