According to reports, the sale of Rush Street Interactive is being explored as the firm evaluates its future prospects.
Bloomberg detailed that DraftKings had been approached as a potential buyer for the group, as the Massachusetts-headquartered sports betting giant is believed to hold ambitions to strengthen its igaming capabilities.
In spite of being one of the smaller fishes in a big pond of online gambling firms, Rush Street boasts a well-established portfolio of brands and any acquisition of the firm would be seen as a key development for an operator’s igaming offering.
It comes amidst a market backdrop where mergers and acquisitions are expected to play a central role in North America in the coming year, as operators battle for market share in a region that has intensified in terms of competitiveness.
In a recent investor update, DraftKings CEO Jason Robins praised the potential impact of acquisitions after the company confirmed a deal to purchase digital lottery service Jackpocket.
One of the key elements of that deal that was lauded by Robins was the ability to cross sell.
He told investors: “The fact that there’s overlap shows us that the customers are very similar. We looked at a number of different data points to verify that from demographic data to other behavioural insights and graphical stuff.
“I think the idea is that overlap was with zero CRM or actual effort put towards cross sell. And it’s nowhere near the cross sell that we’ve been able to achieve from OSB to igaming. So we think there’s a tonne of upside there with real meaningful effort put towards that.”
Whether this highlights an appetite from DraftKings for the acquisition of Rush Street remains to be seen, however, the firm is clearly eyeing expansion as it looks to continue the elevation of its North American footprint.
It also came as the operator reported fruitful numbers in terms of annual revenue for 2023 as well as an impressive rise in player engagement.
As well as this, 2024 revenue is projected to be between $4.65bn to $4.9bn which would equate to a YoY growth of 27%-34%. 2024 adjusted EBITDA is now expected to be between $410m and $510m.
