RSI Ends Months of Speculation with Big Announcement

By Scott Bowen,
Editor at online-gambling.com

Scott Bowen Editor at online-gambling.com

Scott Bowen is a casino expert and editor with many years of experience in the gambling industry. He is one of the most valuable members of our team at online-gambling.com. Bowen specializes in writing on a variety of subjects, including roulette, blackjack, video poker, sports betting, and more.

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Last updated: August 15, 2022

Rush Street Interactive (RSI) has confirmed that it will add online poker to its gaming platform later. This announcement comes after months of speculation, and it came along with information that the company has successfully acquired Poker Night in America. Richard Schwartz, CEO of RSI, said Poker Night would complement the company’s acquisition and onboarding of the RIO (Run It Once) poker team. RSI acquired Run It Once for $5.8 million in cash and stock last March.

Since March, RSI has kept quiet about its plans for US online poker. Schwartz made his last reference to online poker in early May when discussing Q1 2022 on an earnings call. At the time, he gave a hint that poker would play a significant role in the plan of the company to turn in profit by the second half of 2023. He also gave the development team of RSI high praise. At this time, the team included elements from RIO.

Online Poker Is Briefly Mentioned

Last month, during another earnings call, Schwartz briefly mentioned online poker, albeit at the end of his commentary. During the call on August 4, he said he was happy that they’ve completed the acquisition of Poker Night in America.

Schwartz continued, “Poker Night has a loyal fan base, a deep library of poker TV content, and capabilities to create media that will aid in further developing the BetRivers network and keep our target audience engaged on an ongoing basis.”

Schwartz Believes the Acquisition Will Boost Growth for Their Business

According to Schwartz, the purchase of Poker Night was funded with about $2.7 million of RSI stock and $2.2 million in cash. He said that they don’t expect that acquisition to have such an important impact on the revenue or the profit as it will help with the growth of the business.

Rush Street Productions, which is a subsidiary of Rush Street Gaming, created and produced the Poker Night series. It is regarded as the flagship series for the subsidiary. Online poker is mentioned in RSI’s Q2 2022 earnings presentation. The company mentioned that its BetRivers brand would add poker content in order to cross-sell to sportsbooks and casinos.

BetRivers Will Compete with PokerStars and BetMGM

BetRivers Casino presently operates in four states – New Jersey, Michigan, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. All four states allow online poker. However, West Virginia does not currently have any operators for online poker.

New Jersey and Michigan are signatories of MSIGA (Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement). MSIGA is an interstate compact that authorizes the pooling of internet poker players. West Virginia and Pennsylvania are thinking about joining the compact.

BetRivers will compete against PokerStars and what is informally called the BetMGM Poker Network (BetMGM, Partypoker, and Borgata) when it launches its online poker. These two rivals presently offer online poker in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Michigan. However, PokerStars Stars Casino does not presently offer an online casino in West Virginia, but its competitor BetMGM does have an online casino there.