Rush Street Interactive, Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the West Street Interactive Third Quarter 2025 earnings conference call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. Please note that this conference call is being recorded today, October 29th, 2025. I will now turn the call over to Kyle Fowler, President and Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon. By now, everyone should have access to our third quarter 2025 earnings release. It can be found under the heading financials quarterly results in the investor section of the RSI website at RushStreetInteractive.com. Some of our comments will be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements are not statements of historical fact and are usually identified by the use of words such as will, expect, should, or other similar phrases and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we expect. We assume no responsibility for updating any forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should exercise caution in interpreting and relying on them. We refer you to our SEC filings for a more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact our future operating results and financial condition. During the call, we will discuss our non-GAAP measures which we believe can be useful in evaluating the company's operating performance. These measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for our financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP. We will be discussing adjusted EBITDA, which we define as net income or loss before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, share-based compensation, adjustments for certain one-time or non-recurring items, and other adjustments that are either non-cash or not related to our underlying business performance. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure is available in our third quarter 2025 earnings release and our investor deck, which is available in the investor section of the RSI website at rustreinteractive.com. For purposes of today's call, unless noted otherwise, when discussing profitability, EBITDA, or other income statement measures other than revenue, we're referring to those items on a non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA basis. With me on the call today, we have Richard Schwartz, Chief Executive Officer. We will first provide some opening remarks and then open the call to questions. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Richard.

Thanks, Kyle. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. I'm pleased to report on another outstanding quarter that underscores the resilience of our business model and player-first approach. Our third quarter results demonstrate continued momentum and acceleration of growth across key markets. led by our continued outperformance in the online casino space. Before diving into our key quarterly performance, I want to highlight some important organizational enhancements to strengthen our leadership structure. We promoted Kyle Sowers to President and CFO, expanding his existing role to now oversee marketing, operations, and commercial strategy, in addition to finances. This change allows me to focus more deeply on innovation, online casino legalization, and strategic growth opportunities, while Kyle drives cross-functional operational excellence across our existing markets. We've also elevated Rob Picard to Chief Strategy Officer, reflecting his contributions to our success. These changes position us well for continued execution as we scale our business. Congratulations to both Kyle and Rob. Now turning to our Q3 performance. Revenue reached a record $277.9 million, up 20% year over year, marking our 10th consecutive quarter of sequential revenue growth over the prior quarter. Notably, this growth was driven by very strong player acquisition and player engagement across our higher value markets. Adjusted EBITDA of $36 million increased 54% year over year, demonstrating the operating leverage inherent in our business model as we scale. In total for North America, our mouths increased 34% year over year, rising to 225,000. This represents our fastest quarterly user growth rate over four years and clearly off a much larger base of players. What makes these results particularly compelling is the continued acceleration of our growth in North American online casino markets, where we see the highest player value and retention. In our North American online casino markets, we deliver exceptional performance with 46% year-over-year malgrowth. This is also the second highest quarterly growth rate in over four years. Again, achieved off a much larger starting player base. Even more encouraging, we've seen accelerating year-over-year growth in our North American online casino player base every single month since March, indicating a strong underlying momentum that extends well beyond any seasonal factors. While this rapidly growing player base is driven by our high quality player experience and strong retention, we also had a record quarter as it relates to first-time depositors across the business. beating our prior high water mark by more than 10%, while doing so at very attractive customer acquisition rates. Turning to our performance in individual online casino markets, the breadth and scope of our success is encouraging. Delaware continued its noteworthy trajectory with 74% net revenue growth, demonstrating the sustained opportunity in this market, even as it continues to mature. Michigan delivered 48% growth, its second fastest pace since Q1 2022. Even our most mature market, New Jersey, achieved 37% growth, the second fastest rate since Q1 2021, proving that established markets can re-accelerate with the right strategy and execution. Ontario grew 24%, its fastest pace since Q4 2023. While Pennsylvania delivered 15% growth, it's fastest growth since Q3 2021. This broad-based acceleration of growth across markets of varying maturity levels validates our strategic approach of focusing on product differentiation and a high quality customer experience. Our proprietary technology platform enables us to deliver unique gaming experiences that drive both customer acquisition and retention efficiently. In Latin America, we continued to build momentum with MALS growing 30% year over year, climbing to a new record of 415,000 users. While Copa America in 2024 created a challenging year over year comparison in July, August and September both delivered over 50% growth, demonstrating the underlying strength of our LATAM operations extends well beyond major sporting events. Mexico revenue grew over 100% again this quarter, reflective of continued momentum and market share gains in that market. And in Colombia, while GGR again grew over 50%, net revenue was down 27% during the quarter due to player bonusing related to the temporary VAT tax. In Colombia, we continue to navigate the VAT tax environment. Our strategy of absorbing the tax impact while maintaining player experience has allowed us to grow our market position and continue to grow our player base at a fast pace. Our strong operational performance at Columbia positions us well for meaningful upside when normal tax conditions resume. As for the President's proposed 2026 tax reform, we continue to believe that Congress will not approve the proposed online gaming tax. Now I want to address several industry topics that I know are top of mind for investors. First, on prediction markets. We are monitoring this space closely. As a casino-first company, we see less direct competitive risk than sportsbook-heavy operators. In fact, if prediction markets create tax revenue erosion concerns for states, this could accelerate online casino legalization. that states seek more protected revenue streams, a development that would actually benefit RSI given a market-leading experience in online casino. The second industry topic is sweepstakes operators. The proliferation of unregulated sweepstakes products with games that look, feel, and play identical to regulated online casino games presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The reality is that this online casino gaming is already occurring across the United States through these unregulated and illicit channels. These operators generally pay no taxes are not subject to consumer protection or responsible gaming standards and often raise concerns about targeting minors. States are faced with a clear choice. Continue to allow this untaxed unregulated activity. or they can legalize online casino gaming and regulate it properly, ensuring strong and consistent consumer protections for the residents and generating meaningful tax revenue for their states. We believe the right choice is obvious and the sweepstakes proliferation only strengthens the case for regulated online casino expansion. Looking ahead, our pipeline of opportunities remains robust. We're excited about our planned expansion into Alberta and anticipate launching in that market on day one when it goes live. This represents a significant online casino opportunity that leverages our proven success in similar markets, such as Ontario, where we continue to hit new quarterly revenue records. We are also actively monitoring legislative developments across multiple US states or budget pressures and the need for new revenue sources are creating momentum for online casino legalization. As we look toward the remainder of 2025 and beyond, I'm confident in our strategic positioning. Our focus on markets that include online casino, our proprietary and innovative technology platform, our marketing efficiency, and our operational excellence create a sustainable competitive advantage that is difficult to replicate. The fundamentals of our business have never been stronger. We're growing fast, efficiently, and profitably. Most importantly, we're doing so in a way that positions us for continued success in online gaming markets across the Americas. With that, I'll turn the call over to Kyle for a more detailed financial commentary.

Thanks, Richard. I'll now provide additional details on our third quarter financial performance and outlook. Third quarter revenue of $277.9 million increased 20% year-over-year, driven by exceptional growth across our North American online casino markets and partially offset by lower revenue in Columbia and some player-friendly sports outcomes in September. Once again, we see the results as demonstrating the consistency and durability of our business model. Online casino revenues grew 34% during the quarter, while online sports betting contracted 16%. due to the elevated bonusing in Colombia. Regionally, revenue in North America grew 26%, while revenue in Latin America fell by 11%, similarly affected by the elevated bonusing in Colombia. Our gross margin was 34.0% during the quarter, reflecting continued improvement in mixed shift to higher gross margin markets, but offset by player-friendly sports outcomes, which impacted Colombia results in bonusing. And also, to a lesser extent, the increase in New Jersey gaming taxes. On the expense side, our disciplined approach continues to drive operating leverage. Marketing expense of $38.1 million was down 1% year over year, while increasing sequentially by 5%. Richard mentioned this already, but it's worth reiterating. We had our highest North American monthly active user growth in four years. and we set another new record for first-time depositors for the entire company during the quarter, achieving this while further decreasing our cost to acquire players in North America by over 10% during the quarter, leading to continued leverage over our marketing investments, and this represents less than 14% of revenue. G&A expenses were $20.4 million, up 8% year-over-year, reflecting continued investment in our technology platform and operational capabilities to support our growth. As a percentage of revenue, G&A remained well controlled at 7.3%, and we continue to expect modest leverage over this slide item as we scale. Adjusted EBITDA of $36 million increased 54% year-over-year, representing a margin of 13%. This demonstrates the significant operating leverage in our business model as we continue to scale. The strong flow through from revenue growth to profitability underscores the quality of our revenue streams and the efficiency of operations. Looking at our key operating metrics, the strength of our performance becomes even more apparent. North American miles of 225,000 users was 34% year-over-year growth, our strongest quarterly performance in over four years. And more importantly, this growth is concentrated in our higher value online casino markets. North American art mile of $365 was down 5% year-over-year, which is expected given the impressive growth in the user base. As we've seen consistently, newer player cohorts start with lower spend levels and more bonusing before increasing engagement and player value over time. This is exactly the dynamic we want to see. Rapid customer base expansion that'll drive long-term value creation. In Latin America, Mao's reached $415,000, up 30% year over year, despite the challenging Copa America comparison in July. The acceleration we saw in August and September with both months delivering over 50% growth and demonstrating the underlying strength of our LATAM operations. Our balance sheet remains exceptionally strong. We ended the quarter with substantial unrestricted cash of $273 million in no debt, providing significant flexibility for both organic growth investments and potential strategic opportunities. Our strong cash generation continues with meaningfully positive operating cash flow throughout the quarter. I'll also note that we have begun including our balance sheet and cash flow statement in our quarterly press release starting this quarter. Regarding our outlook, we remain confident in the momentum we've built and the opportunities ahead. The acceleration we've seen in North America online casino markets every month since March gives us confidence that this growth is sustainable and not merely seasonal. We continue to expect to maintain marketing leverage for the full year with marketing expenses growing at a lower rate than revenue, Our G&A investments are focused on areas that directly support our growth, particularly technology and product development capabilities that enhance our competitive differentiation. Looking at the fourth quarter and beyond, we believe we're well positioned to continue delivering strong performance. The seasonal strength we typically see in Q4, combined with our accelerating market trends, positions us for a strong finish to 2025. We remain excited about our expansion opportunities, particularly in Alberta, where we expect to launch when that market opens. Our success in similar markets gives us confidence in our ability to capture meaningful market share quickly. In summary, Q3 represents another quarter of exceptional execution across all aspects of our business. We're growing faster, more profitably, and more efficiently than ever before while building a foundation for sustained long-term success. Based on this continued strong performance, we're raising our full-year revenue and EBITDA guidance. We expect 2025 revenue to be between 1.1 and $1.12 billion, up $35 million at the midpoint of $1.11 billion and representing a 20% year-over-year increase. For the full year, we anticipate adjusted EBITDA to be between $147 million and $153 million, up $10 million at the midpoint of $150 million, which is up 62% year-over-year. And one last reminder, our guidance includes only those markets that are live as of today. And with that, operator, we can open the line for questions.

At this time, if you would like to ask a question, it is star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad. If for any reason you would like to remove that question, it is star followed by 2. Again, to ask a question, it is star 1. As a reminder, if you're using a speakerphone, please remember to pick up your headset before asking a question. I'll pause briefly here as questions are registered. Our first question comes from Dan Pulitzer with the company JP Morgan. Dan, your line is now open.

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking our questions. This is actually Sam on for Dan. First, I think if we think about your updated guidance, it implies fourth quarter incremental margins at the midpoint of around 20%, which is below recent levels. I think you talked about some increased marketing in the fourth quarter. Is there any other color you could provide around puts and takes, maybe like a sports betting, you know, unfavorable holds from sport outcomes?

Yeah, thanks for the question, Sam. I think I'd point to, yes, the increased marketing spend. As we pointed out in our prepared remarks, we've been having really good success bringing on a lot of new players and at attractive rates. So that's part of it. And I think the other piece that I would put in there is just the – the ongoing bat tax that goes through the end of the year in Colombia that's impacting gross margins and revenue growth down there a little bit.

Thanks. And then there's some recent news coming out of Mexico. They're considering a potential increase in gaming tax rates. Was this something you were anticipating going into the year? And how would you kind of think about increased tax rates impacting kind of how you operate in that market? Thank you.

Yeah, we've been tracking that. I wouldn't say it was something that we anticipated heading into 2025, but it does appear that in Mexico the gaming tax is likely to increase from a current rate of 30% up to 50%. There have been and should continue to be ways to reduce the effective rate below these amounts, but we'll keep you updated next year assuming these changes get enacted. and what that means for us, and if there's any difference in the way we approach that market. Operator, I think we can go to the next question.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Barney. The turn in with the company Needleman Co. Barney, your line is now open.

Great. Thanks for taking the question. Maybe just to start and keeping on the Latin theme, what should we be looking for in terms of like next steps for what's going on in Columbia and the VAT tax? And maybe Richard, just gauge your probability of it going through or not, if it's still a high degree of confidence or not.

Sure. Yeah. So Columbia, it is a situation where the president's tax reform does require congressional support. I think there's been some articles published over the last few weeks that sort of sometimes don't convey that clear picture that it does require congressional support, and we continue to feel there is not sufficient support by Congress to pass that. So if that doesn't pass, then the normal tax conditions should resume. That's sort of the state of things today, but November is going to be a very busy time in the political TAB, Mark McIntyre:" arena down there, the President remains unpopular and his party does so it's still some work that's happening down there, but I certainly think that the current view is that the current tax reform is proposed will not be adapted.

TAB, Mark McIntyre:" understood. Um, and then Richard, you also, um, there was obviously the press release happened not too long ago, but then you mentioned on this call how there's the, um, you know, Kyle being promoted to president and allowing you to focus on more, um, strategic, maybe bigger picture things. Um, just wanted to see if there's any commentary on, on maybe why, why now, um, or if there's anything you could, you know, bring us under the hood in terms of what you'll be focused on specifically.

sure uh first of all i think kyle deserves it uh the opportunity the tremendous job for the company since he joined us and his support throughout the board and colleagues uh other executives and everyone in our community that follows our company i think has recognized how deserving it was but ultimately i also for myself realized that the impact to our company of having additional states legalizing online casino is is very profound and very significant and I believe, as I shared on prior calls, that there are opportunities to improve how our industry lobbies and the narrative, the messaging, and hopefully the impact of the opportunity will be stronger if I'm able to spend more time working with other colleagues from our peers to try to align folks in a way that hasn't really been aligned as much as we like in the past. So I think that, number one, online casino legalization requires a very strong and very dedicated effort to really try to move the needle in terms of accelerating the pace. And I think we'll be able to achieve some results through some additional time to focus on that. In addition, as we know, we hired a new CTO earlier this year. He's off to a tremendous start. And what I'm excited about is working with him and the team to continue to deliver Experiences that are fun that players want to play because and they can't get anywhere else so then a day we want to continue to improve the innovation of our business and the differentiation which has been the source of a lot of our success and why you see our Art mouths as such a high rate relative to others is because we have a constant flow of new ideas Implemented in smart ways that consumers really enjoy and appreciate and we have a team that loves building these these fun experiences but we need to do more of that and I Some of you know I have a long history of in that part of the business on the product side. And I think it'd be a great opportunity to kind of ensure that we have our next pipeline enhanced and coming through at a faster pace. So I'm really excited to focus on innovation as well. And then as you can also imagine, there's all these strategic opportunities in the industry, and we want to make sure that we have a proper focus on those and make sure that when we evaluate how to direct capital to get the highest returns, that we're comparing all the opportunities And there's a lot of them. So we have to sort of make sure we have the right focus on those to ensure that when we do find the right one, we are able to act and have proper support to make sure it's successful. So those are the sort of the things I'm hoping to focus on.

Great. Thanks for taking questions. Certainly we feel the similar sentiment towards Kyle. So thanks again.

Appreciate it. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Jordan Binder with the company Citizens. Jordan, your line is up.

Hey, Al. So the state reported data doesn't always tell the whole story, but it does look like you got a little bit more promotional on the sports betting side of the business later in the quarter, which we can kind of see in your handle accelerating. Curious as to what you're seeing in the market that's making you lean in, and are you seeing anything elevated from your end or the market's end as we head into the fourth quarter here?

Yeah. Thanks, Jordan. I don't think I would highlight anything dramatic that's happening within the industry. Obviously, everybody has their own strategy heading into football season that they're trying to execute. And we're, I think, probably like all operators, we're continuing to refine our bonusing in all of our different markets. And each each market might look a little bit different. But making sure the bonuses are getting to the right players. So really, no, no big change in strategy there for us.

Okay. And then if I can follow up in Columbia, if I caught it right, I think you said NGR down 27% in the quarter, which if I heard that right, would kind of represent a pretty meaningful deceleration from what you saw in the first two quarters of the year. I guess, like, is there anything structurally different from what you're doing in that market? You know, obviously it ends here in a couple of months, but just curious on why the deceleration there.

Yeah, so just to be clear, I don't think I would refer to it as a deceleration because the player count growth was still super strong. GGR growth was still super strong. This was about the bonusing that we're doing to offset the VAT tax on the players. And it was a bit more painful for us in Q3 in terms of the impact on net revenue. And part of that comes from better sports outcomes, and then because of that, you have players who have a little bit fuller balances in their accounts, so there's a little more churn with deposits and withdrawals, which creates more bonusing. So that's really how I would describe Q3 as it relates to Columbia, but not a deceleration. It was more about the bonusing.

I would just add that the handle, the growth scanning revenues, the player volumes are generally in line with the growth we were experiencing prior to the VAT tax implementation. So we continue to see really healthy growth in the market. Great. Thank you very much.

Our next question comes from Ryan Signal with the company Craig Hallam. Ryan, your line is now open.

Hey, good afternoon, guys. Really nice results. I want to start kind of in the U.S. and then we'll move to Latin America like everybody else. But, you know, some nice payment processing partnerships, siteline payments for an integrated debit solution. You have Burra Pay for crypto. But you guys seem like kind of a leader, first mover on a lot of that stuff. Curious how those partnerships came about. Any metrics you're willing to give from a percentage of players that are using these or have adopted them? And then kind of how you think about the cost savings versus, you know, potentially even customer retention features of these.

Right, sure. I'll take that one, Ryan. Thanks for the comments on the quarter. Yeah, so it really starts off with sort of a reputation that we developed over the years, I think, as a thought leader and an innovator in our industry. And you have to pioneer new payment methods in particular. It's extraordinarily complicated. It requires not only engineering teams, but compliance operations and every sort of partner and all stakeholders have to sort of align together and figure out really tough challenges and how to execute on them. And I think when you've done it before, as we have, we're a natural company that people want to partner with because we have a track record and a history of delivering new experiences to customers in a great way. In the case of Sightline, you know, their co-founder, CEO, and myself have a relationship going back many years since they launched their business. And our teams get along extremely well. And if we recognize that together, we could deliver an experience that is solving a need that industry has, especially for us. And so we had a very collaborative and terrific relationship, and we launched that product, and we're really excited for it, but it's still very early, and we don't have any metrics to share. It's called it, and at this time. For Buropay, another long-time executive industry approached us, again, for similar reasons, knowing that we have a great reputation, I think, and are able to pioneer new approaches, and similar to the Sideline experience, we were able to uh agree on a framework to work together and collaborate to deliver great experiences so um you know payments are key to our industry and when you can innovate and find ways to solve players friction deliver more efficient experiences for them and it makes a difference and so we tend to do that in latin america very well and we're doing that equally as well i think in the u.s market yeah the only thing i would add ryan i think

you hit on it, but there's two reasons for these types of innovations around payments. The first is obviously to have a great player experience and a journey where it makes it very easy for players to feel comfortable, trust the platform, get their money on and off the platform when they want. And then the second piece is to make sure that it's improving our financials and reducing costs over time. So when we can accomplish both of those things at the same time, that's a big win for us.

Yep. Then switching down to Columbia, we don't need to debate our likelihood of tax reform. We'll kind of wait and see how that all plays out. But to me, it's a positive regardless. Curious your thoughts on that. There's a great outcome, obviously, that it doesn't continue into next year and you get an immediate uplift. The other option is it does in some form. But my question is, do you expect operators to change strategies, behavior? I guess to me, it felt like everybody was operating under a temporary policy. this year absorbing the VAT tax because it was going to go away, but if it ultimately becomes permanent, people likely, you know, partially or stop doing that and actually results can improve next year regardless.

Yeah, I think it's a good point. I think there's, you know, at either end of the spectrum for outcomes, it should be a better scenario for us next year. So, I mean, if you just look at some of the numbers for the year, GGR is up a little less than 60%, and net revenue is about flat. But that includes the first couple months of the year because the bonusing and the VAT didn't go into place until late February. So if you just looked at Q2 and Q3, GGR is up almost 65%, but net revenue is down almost 15%. So it gives you just kind of a decent perspective on the headwind from the extra bonusing that that we're doing along with the other large operators. So then you jump to 2026. The VAT going away is obviously going to have a very solid impact on our revenue growth, given that we've seen the GGR growing over 60%. And at the other end of the possible outcomes, as you point out, we think it's likely that all the operators would decrease the bonusing, take that bonusing away, which wouldn't be great for GGR, but it should be much better for us in net revenue and profitability. And then the other piece of it is by the end of February, we're lapping the bonusing that we started doing because of the VAT tax. So both of those could be beneficial for us.

Helpful. Thanks, guys. Good luck.

Our next question comes from Joe Stoff with the company Quihana International Group. Joe, your line is open.

Good effort, operator. Well done. It's not easy. Hi, Richard, Kyle. I wanted to ask, Richard, on your comments about the sweepstakes market, you know, what states that you operate in, And currently, do you consider to have, you know, a pretty substantial headwind in terms of sweepstakes operators operating, you know, against you?

Well, remember, there's sweepstakes across poker and across sports and across casinos. So I guess, you know, a couple of large states – have been fairly effective at having the regulators sort of issue cease and desist letters and removing some of the competition. I'll mention Michigan is one example, and Delaware is another example, and other states where you operate online sports betting and some efforts to legalize online casino in Virginia, a market that does still have sweepstakes, for example, and Illinois still has it as well. So it's really a mix across the country of states that have been able to sort of exit the sweepstakes and others that have not. So it's not a very clear cut. In some cases, some of the larger sweepstakes operators leave, but there's others that still stay. So it's not a very clear image, a lot of confusion sort of what the status is in some of those individual states.

Gotcha. So for iCasino in particular, maybe of your more material states, Michigan, Delaware, or are maybe the states where it's a little bit cleaner, whereas the other ones, not so much.

Yeah, I'm not actually familiar with the latest in a couple of those other states other than ones I referenced.

Got it. And in terms of, you know, just the reinvestment you did in the third quarter and the reacceleration, you know, for instance, especially like in a state like New Jersey, If we think about the first-time depositors, which you said was a record, was it heavier in certain states than not, or is it more kind of across the board?

Yeah, thanks, Joe. So for sure it is concentrated in markets that have iCasino available. So I would include Ontario in that in addition to the states that we're in Um, that's where we haven't been shy about the fact that, uh, we feel like we have, um, very differentiated product and an advantage there. And, and so that's where our marketing investments should go. And it's clearly, clearly paying off. I mean, uh, I think our, our 34% growth in our monthly active users in North America is impressive, but, um, when you get to just the I casino markets and it was 46% year over year, um, that tells you that's where we're investing and that's where. we're having a lot of success. Yep. Makes all the sense in the world. Thank you.

Our next question comes from David Katz with the company Jefferies. David, your line is now open.

Thank you and good evening, everybody. First question, Richard, I think you talked about prediction markets a little bit, but I'm not sure if you said, you know, whether you would be potentially looking into offering it if it became a legalized context to do so?

I don't think I addressed that, and I predicted you might ask this question. So the truth is that when it comes to prediction of markets, the legality of it is being debated across the federal government and state jurisdictions right now. Dave Kuntz, handful of states, as you know, are actually pushing back against prediction markets as unauthorized author offerings. Dave Kuntz, At our side, our focus is on our core business delivering sustainable growth or navigating the regulatory landscape responsibly. Dave Kuntz, Which means that we are going to be a pioneer over very innovative a lot of ways we're not going to be a pioneer. Dave Kuntz, In this category, but certainly we have to have a even playing field, ultimately, depending on whatever happens but we're certainly. monitoring it closely, aware of everything that's been happening, and don't expect to be pushing any limits because we certainly respect the state gaming licenses and recognize that licenses are a privilege at a state level, not a right. And so we have to be very cautious and make sure we're compliant with those stakeholders there that feel strongly on this topic.

Understood. And if I may, as my follow-up, Kyle, if I can still address you as Kyle. I noticed that there wasn't any share or purchase in the quarter. Just curious if there are sort of other uses there or what the philosophy was behind that.

Yeah, thanks, David. I'm still going to call you David. Yeah, we didn't do any buybacks during the quarter. I continue to think about future buybacks as being you know, opportunistic rather than programmatic. So we're going to just remain flexible on how we use the buyback authorization and make sure that we've got a lot of dry powder for new markets that come along or other opportunities as well.

Okay. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Jed Kelly with the company Oppenheimer. Jed, your line is now open.

Hey, great. Thanks for taking my question. Just on the iGaming growth in some of your more mature states, can you kind of dig in more to what's driving that acceleration? Is it more product-exclusive content, or is it something you're doing on the bonusing, or are you just getting share gains from other competitors?

So, Judd, I'll start, and maybe Richard will jump in here, but I think it's everything. So obviously when you look at the monthly active user growth, that's not just about getting new people to the platform, that's having a great product and a differentiated experience and giving people a reason to come back every day. When it comes to bringing people to the platform, which obviously we're doing quite well given that this quarter was a record for first-time depositors at the company, I think 10% higher than our previous record, which happened to be last quarter, and we're not spending any more money doing that. I think that tells you a lot about the quality of our marketing team and our marketing programs. We've done a lot to continue to add resources to that team, and they keep getting better and better. The good news is that there's a lot of things we can still do better than we are today, but I think the fact that we're adding so many new users and then keeping them around says a lot about the momentum we have in the business. I think you probably heard it in the prepared remarks, but our year-over-year growth in monthly active users accelerated every month sequentially since March through September. So I think that's pretty impressive, and we're very excited about that.

And just as a follow-up, What do you think is more of a catalyst for further iGaming legislation? Is it prediction markets or sweeps? Thanks.

Sure. I think both have a meaningful role to play because in one case, prediction markets is reducing the sports betting revenues potentially that states will be obtaining from the sports betting statewide frameworks that exist. If that happens, certainly online gaming is a safer, more protected category of casino revenues that would be sustained. It certainly helps that online casino generates a 4x the tax revenues in sports betting, so as states have more financial pressures. And I think as the big federal bill starts to get implemented in the next couple of years, you're going to have increased financial pressures on states. And as we've seen some stakeholders in the discussion recognize, online casino represents one of the very most available, accessible, proven, reliable opportunities for states to have a meaningful additional source of tax revenue. So the financial element on sweepstakes, certainly the fact that the size of that industry is not to be underappreciated. It's a multi-billion dollar industry, and there's a whole large volume of customers. that could be online casino regulated customers that are right now playing these sweepstakes sites. And I think it's interesting that when you do have folks opposing online casinos being regulated, you don't have the same effort usually applied towards stopping the sweepstakes market that already exists today. So certainly the existence of it and the fact that it's not taxed, and as I said, I have a pair of remarks, not taxed, doesn't protect consumers, really has no value to a state in any way. It just has negative consequences versus the online gaming regulatory process and legalizing it adds a lot of value to states by protecting consumers and generating taxes and creating opportunities to fund resources to local causes and public services that need that sort of support. So I do think that these things are going to help plus the financial needs of states. And as I said earlier, having better alignment in our industry is really important. And as I have more availability, I hope to be able to focus on these things. I'm hoping to be able to deliver some accelerated efforts in some of the key jurisdictions that are important for us in the future.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Chad Benin with the company Macquarie. Chad, your line is now open.

Afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. I feel like we covered everything on iGaming. For sports betting, maybe wanted to ask one just in terms of how the customers have reacted just within play. So we have heard that, you know, there was obviously customer-friendly outcomes for American football and for soccer, I think, in September and for October. So that probably hurt hold. But just in terms of the in-play percentage helping hold, does that continue to look or does that continue to grow from a year-over-year perspective? And if we see normal outcomes, that could lead to a year-over-year increase in hold. Thank you.

Yeah, thanks, Chad. So we have continued to see improvement in the percentage of vetting that goes both to you know, parlays, SGPs, and in-game. That's been an initiative for us for quite some time. So those trends have been positive for us. Interesting on the hold, absolutely there were some player-friendly outcomes, as you pointed out, and it's well publicized, particularly in September. So that did create some headwind. But I will point out that our sports hold in the U.S. actually hit its highest point in our history in Q3, even with those tougher outcomes. So I think that's a pretty good reflection of how our team has been able to continue to improve the product and the offering and drive players to a better mix of bets.

Great. Thanks, Kyle. And then on Columbia again, I think previously you've talked about the VAT tax representing roughly, you know, a low double digit hit to EBITDA. You're doing things to offset it and you laid that out for the third quarter. But as we think about the guidance increase and maybe the outperformance in Q3, is it fair to say that maybe the beat, I guess some of it's probably coming from the MAU growth, but was there any type of a beat against that originally expected VAT impact?

So, not positive. I understand the question exactly, but I'm going to answer, and you can tell me if I got you here. I think when you look at Q3 and the guidance raise, it's probably more about continued acceleration in MAUs, so more players, outperformance in MAUs, North American Eye Casino, actually really good operational performance in Latin America, but more pressure from the bonus scene in Q3 than maybe we would have anticipated, and that's partly because of those good player-friendly sports outcomes, I should say. Did that get to just your question?

Yep. Okay. Answered like a president. Thank you, Kyle.

thanks congrats appreciate it the last question comes from my kiki with the company benchmark mike your line is not open thank you hey richard hey kyle congrats on the quarter and kyle congrats on the promotion the um i dropped myself guys early in the call so This question seems obvious, but on the prediction market in states where you have market share called Delaware, are you seeing any pressure from Kalshi, soon to be Pauli Market in that state or states? Thanks, guys. Another follow up.

Thanks, Mike. Yeah, I'll answer that. No, the truth is we have not seen an impact to date from that we've noticed in those states where we operate the sports betting. So, you know, we're still looking for that and certainly monitoring it, but we haven't seen much of an impact.

Richard, do you see anything on the prediction platforms in terms of innovation that you potentially integrate into your online gaming products, OSP products?

That's a good question. We have people look at it closely. I think we're still just trying to appreciate that, you know, was often described as a peer to peer experience. What we're seeing is that there are some large Companies are taking positions on one side of the equation and essentially almost replicating what a sports book is from the house. I think when you start to I think the BFS industry had a lot of really smart pioneering things they did that sportsbooks could and should embrace as well in terms of how you communicate that proposition to players, and I think you're going to see which types of markets gain momentum in the prediction, and some of the things you might not expect will be the popular markets, and it's then up for companies like us to identify how we strengthen our own books. I think those things we'll be paying attention to, but I would say it's almost felt premature really see a lot because so far what's been happening is that the prediction markets are less regulated than than we are and so perhaps you will start and they're self-certifying in many cases you start to see things happening in the future maybe that are worth us paying attention to but what you've seen so far is really that industry trying to replicate sports betting and signing starting to say well we have single game parlay so how can they just don't get parlayed so i think right now the direction is more of them trying to replicate what is this in our business At some point, I could see if that market was doing this, although obviously it's a long way to know that's going to happen, then you certainly would start to see cross-pollination of ideas in the other direction too.

Nice. Last question from us. Do you think the Trump fight with the Colombian president, is that creating more or less support in Colombia for the president and his potential FACTS CHANGE AND THEN I GUESS BROADLY SPEAKING YOU KNOW KIND OF A MESS IN COLUMBIA I MEAN DOES THAT SORT OF YOU KNOW TAKE DOWN A LITTLE BIT I GUESS YOUR APPETITE TO EXPAND FURTHER I MEAN BRAZIL ECUADOR CHILE ARGENTINA ALL REALLY INTERESTING REGIONS I THINK YOU'RE LOOKING AT MAYBE UNLOCKING BUT THERE'S SORT OF A MESS IN COLUMBIA I GUESS

uh sort of pull back in your desire to put capital to work in other countries in latin america thanks guys yeah maybe i'll take your second question first and answer no it doesn't really dampen our interest it's a lot of effort to get experience right for latin america we believe those markets are at the infancy of growth and as we see in our growth ourselves there's lots of opportunity there and it's a very large population across latin america that are in the process of or will be legalized online because gaming in the future so we certainly remain very excited for it and frankly some of the things that are happening in these regions are also happening here in the united states across the different footprints here so i don't think anything is anything is possible these days it feels like with the anywhere in the world so i think certainly we are excited for the laptop market and think we will be able to you know control the things that we can and execute where we can and influence when we're able to in terms of how we sort of want frameworks to exist in a way that's viable, but I think we're excited for the future in LATAM. In terms of the Columbia question, we certainly haven't heard or seen any evidence of anything impacting us. Certainly we've been a great citizen down there, continue to be very respected in that industry and feel really confident about the taxes we generate and the quality of the business that we run down there. So I think the answer would be no to your question.

At this time, there are no more questions registered in queue. I'd like to pass the conference back over to our hosting team for closing remarks.

Well, thank you for joining us today. We're excited about the road ahead and look forward to sharing our continued progress when we report our fourth quarter and annual results next year.

That will conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation and enjoy the rest of your day.