Rush Street Interactive has identified the Canadian province of Ontario as an essential component of the group’s growth strategy in its latest earnings report.

Publishing its Q1 figures on Wednesday, Rush Street reported revenue of $217.94m (USD$162.4m) in the first three months of 2023, up 20.4% year-on-year (Q1 2022: $181.03m).

Other top line numbers included a net loss of $32.88m (USD$24.5m), down 53.2% YoY, and adjusted EBITDA loss of $11.68m (USD$8.7m), down 20% YoY.

The group noted continued profitable growth in casino markets, including Ontario, Colombia, and West Virginia where it increased estimated market share sequentially during the first quarter.

“These results continue to support our view that online casino is a key driver for us in achieving our long-term goals,” said Rush Street Interactive CEO Richard Schwartz. “Our business model and focus is centered around our deep understanding of online casino customers and developing experiences that will engage and retain them.

“Our year-over-year growth was broad-based with growth in both our eye casino and sport only markets. In addition, we grew revenue over 100% in Latin America and in North American markets launched after 2020. Internationally, we had an excellent quarter.”

Rush Street’s results were underpinned by 33% growth in GGR in Ontario, compared to the fourth quarter, while revenue increased by 38% sequentially due to “improved efficiency on promotions”.

The company entered the Canadian province when the regulated market opened in April 2022, with the online casino and sportsbook of its subsidiary BetRivers going live.

Rush Street further underlined its credentials in Ontario via an agreement with Bragg Gaming to offer a selection of its online gaming content.

Adding to the commentary on the earnings report, CFO Kyle Sauers said: “Consistent with our strategy to invest more in markets with online casino, monthly active users in those markets increased double digits year-over-year. In total, our miles for the first quarter in the United States and Canada were 147,000, up 3% year-over-year after excluding New York due to the impact of the launch in that state on last year’s numbers.”

Responding to a question on Rush Street’s earnings conference call, Sauers continued: “Those (Ontario and Michigan) should be nice growth drivers for us.

“There’s opportunities to grow in a lot of the markets that we’re participating in. What I had mentioned earlier was that some of these — a couple of the larger, more mature markets like Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois, probably offer a little lower growth profile for us this year.”

Meanwhile, guidance from Rush Street suggests the company will pull in between $845.45m (USD$630m) and $939.39m ($700m) across the entire year.