CEO Richard Schwartz lauded “another record-breaking quarter” at the top of Rush Street Interactive’s third-quarter earnings call with Wall Street analysts. The October 30 call marked Rush Street’s 15th consecutive of revenue growth, according to Schwartz.

“We continue to attract new quality players at an impressive rate,” said the CEO in his opening remarks. He called the earnings results “a picture of broad-based growth and success.”

Schwartz raised Rush Street’s earnings guidance for revenue by three percent and its cash-flow projection by 24 percent. He also announced a $50 million stock-repurchase program, the company’s first.

Queried as to why make buybacks rather than issue dividends, CFO Kyle Sauers replied, “We felt like this was the right time to initiate an initial buyback program.” He said that the plan still leaves “flexibility to execute on new market launches,” as well as mergers or acquisitions.

Not only were monthly average user higher, but Rush Street benefited from “better-than-expected sports holds,” as Schwartz put it, adding $10 million to the company’s revenue stream. Delaware was singled out as being “exceptionally strong,” with annual gross gambling revenue for 2024 approaching $100 million.

The CEO said that it’s “a market we remain very excited about.” Sauers added that, compared against other iaming and sports-betting markets, Delaware could be a $200-million-a-year jurisdiction down the road.

Internationally, growth of business in Latin America was characterized as “remarkable,” with 62 percent of Rush Street revenue now engendered outside of Pennsylvania and Illinois, 16 percent of it in Latin America.

“Our expanding margins and increased profitability are as a result of this trend,” Schwartz testified. “We’re particularly proud of the progress we’ve made in diversifying our revenue streams.”

Other benchmarks cited were a 33 percent reduction in the cost of obtaining bettors, as well as the launch of the I-Rush loyalty program. Schwartz said the company’s interface has also been improved as part of a customer-first philosophy.

Those customers, or monthly average users, grew 28 percent in North America year over year and 122 percent in Latin America, according to Sauers. “We’re growing our consistent-player base at these higher rates and our gross margins should improve over time as our revenue continues to improve.” Sauers said the third-quarter profit margin was 34.9 percent. Rush Street had $216 million in cash on hand and reported no debt. Sauers expected $900 million to $920 million in 2024 revenue and $84 million in cash flow.

Regarding the favorable hold rates in sports betting, Sauers is seeing that trend continue into the fourth quarter. He cautioned that there’s one less weekend of NFL play and that football and soccer outcomes had been very bettor-friendly.

While Schwartz and Sauers refrained from making quantitative predictions regarding next year, Sauers was willing to essay some qualitative ones. “This is a growth business,” he reported. “Every market that we’re in is growing steadily,” a trend he expects to continue in 2025, with “higher growth in more profitable markets.”

Returning to Latin America, Sauers said that trends in October were as good as those in August and September, upholding summertime strength. “Our user counts in June and July during Copa [América, the quadrennial soccer tournament] were much higher and that impacted Q2 and Q3. It’s pretty amazing that we grew at that rate of players.”

Schwartz said he was taking a wait-and-see attitude toward Brazil’s expansion into igaming and sports betting. “We’re going to keep revisiting and tracking it.”

Schwartz concluded with some musings on tax increases and igaming expansion. “We don’t expect to see it,” he said of higher levies. “It has to be carefully considered,” because of unintended consequences like driving bettors back offshore.