Few iGaming operators have been as vocal about their excitement for the Alberta opportunity as Rush Street Interactive (RSI), and the BetRivers parent company hopes to be doing business in the province by the time summer rolls around.
“We’re excited about our upcoming launch in Alberta, where the regulatory environment is progressing toward a launch timeline that could occur in the coming quarters, sooner than we were anticipating during our last earnings call,” said CEO Richard Schwartz on an earnings call on Tuesday evening.
“This represents a significant opportunity for us to leverage our success in other North American online casino markets, particularly given our strong performance in Ontario and our established and growing brand recognition across Canada.”
Pressed to specify when he thought Alberta’s doors could finally open, Schwartz noted that things have taken decisive steps in recent weeks, with Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) publishing its regulations and opening the registration process for licensing. RSI has applied for a license for BetRivers in the province, as have several other operators.
“The timing is looking like it could be end of Q2, early Q3,” Schwartz suggested. That would put a launch at somewhere in the June or July ballpark. “Their regulators are moving at a very determined pace and it looks like Q2 opportunity is within the possibility, towards the end of that quarter.”
BetRivers has decent Ontario market share
While many large American gaming operators enter as many regulated online gambling markets as they can, regardless of whether certain states allow only online sports betting or both that and online casino, RSI executives have a more targeted approach.
Schwartz reiterated on Tuesday’s call that the company pursues a “selective, disciplined approach” to expansion, focusing on markets that offer both verticals. “We’ll continue to prioritize markets where we can deploy our full suite of gaming offerings and create meaningful value for both players and shareholders.”
Alberta will fit that bill. Ontario certainly did.
BetRivers has been live with online sports betting and casino in Canada’s only active regulated iGaming province since the early days in 2022 and has posted a string of impressive results in the market, which is a significant contributor to its topline. In October, RSI reported that BetRivers’ revenue in Ontario grew 24% for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2025, its best performance in the province in nearly two years.
While iGaming Ontario (iGO) does not break down its revenue reporting by operator (after all, there are around 50 of those licensed in the market), company executives sometimes provide a snapshot of their standing.
“Our casino share in Ontario is kind of mid to low single digits, while sports is a little bit lower than that,” RSI President and Chief Financial Officer Kyle Sauers said on the Feb. 17 call. Given that BetRivers competes with more than 80 other licensed sites in Ontario (not to mention any unlicensed operators at play), that would seem like a fairly sizeable slice.
“We’re very excited about Alberta,” added Sauers. “We think we’re set up really well to be successful there. Every North American online casino market that we’ve launched in, we’ve been profitable by the fourth quarter of operations. And we don’t see a reason that that should be different with Alberta.”
iCasino-led RSI keeps on surging
Looking at RSI’s results through a wider lens, the company keeps posting impressive results quarter after quarter. The latest earnings update on Feb. 17 showed that for the fiscal year 2025, revenue was up 23% year over year to reach more than US$1.1bn (C$1.5bn) and adjusted EBITDA soared 66% to US$153.7m (C$210.5m).
North America and online casino continue to be primary growth drivers. North America revenue grew 25% for the full year, while iCasino revenue rose 28%. Across Ontario and RSI’s U.S. markets, monthly active users were up 37% to more than 278,000. For online casino only, that increase was even greater at 51%, the second-highest quarterly growth rate during the past 4.5 years.
The company said it added a record number of first-time depositors for the third straight quarter and its average revenue per monthly active user in Canada and the U.S. was US$33 (C$453) in the fourth quarter. RSI achieved this despite the fact that its adjusted sales and marketing expense was just 14% of revenue in Q4, down from around 17% a year earlier.
All in all, RSI’s net income was USD$74m (C$101m) in FY 25, more than 10 times the US$7.2m (C$9.9m) the company reported at the end of FY 24.
Schwartz called RSI’s 2025 “extraordinary,” noting the company broke records across virtually every key metric. The company is predicting FY 2026 revenue of around US$1.4bn (C$1.9bn) and adjusted EBITDA guidance of between US$210 million and US$230 million (C$288m to $315m), which would represent growth of between 21-26% and between 37-50%, respectively.
The guidance does not include the addition of Alberta.
