Share
Although shares of Rush Street Interactive (RSI) are down 34.55% year-to-date, it could be beneficial to the company should Illinois opt to legalize iGaming.
Oppenheimer analyst Jed Kelly noted that RSI’s brand recognition in Illinois could benefit much like BetMGM online casino has in Michigan.
Online casino in Illinois?
As of writing, $RSI shares were trading at $10.91 per share.
Illinois is currently the only state in the US with an active iGaming bill. The bill, HB 3142/ SB 2064, is also known as the Internet Gaming Act. It encomes both online casino games and online poker. However, clout held by brick-and-mortar establishments has made age very tricky. The Illinois legislative session runs till April 8.
Indiana decided not to move forward with online casino legislation earlier this year. Similarly, Iowa has pushed its bill to 2023.
What Wall Street analysts are saying
Following Super Bowl LVI, Kelly reduced his forecast on RSI from $25 to $14. The Wall Street analyst also lowered his price outlook for DraftKings to $35 from $70.
What could boost DraftKings 2022 outlook is availability. DraftKings Sportsbook is available in 17 states and, along with eight other operators, was approved in New York.
From Jan. 8-30, New York State recorded $1.6 billion worth of bets, the most all-time for a single month of any US state. New Jersey previously held the record, which recorded $1.3 billion in wagers in Oct. 2021.
In a note to clients, Stifel analyst Steven Wieczynski had this to say:
“DraftKings is well-funded, and boasts a cost of capital advantage (though contracting more recently), both of which are leveraged to compete via aggressive marketing spend. Early top-line market share results suggest the strategy is working, though the odds of success for a planned rationalization of marketing spend and inflection to profitability remains a key debate today.”
As of writing, $DKNG shares were trading at $23.18 per share. DraftKings reports Q4 results on February 18.
