BetRivers’ RSI Up for 4 EGR 2021 Awards

BetRivers’ Rush Street Interactive is shortlisted for EGR 2021 Operator of the Year and other major awards.

If your favorite actor or actress was up for an Oscar, Golden Globe, or Academy Award, you’d be pretty excited, right? Their nomination confirms, without a doubt, that you’re not the only one who appreciates their high-quality performance. For sports betting fans in Indiana, and much of the United States, the exact same sentiment can be felt when a mobile sportsbook is nominated for an EGR North America Award.

EGR is to the online gambling industry what the Oscars are to Hollywood. The vast majority of iGaming operators will never know what it feels like to be venerated with such an award. It truly is an honor just to be nominated among the industry’s most esteemed colleagues. That very honor is being felt right now by Rush Street Interactive (RSI), operator of Indiana’s BetRivers Mobile Sports.

RSI Up for EGR 2021 Operator of the Year

The announcement came down in the final week of April. RSI has been shortlisted in four categories this year. They include the prestigious 2021 Operator of the Year, plus a trio of ‘Best of’ awards; Best Customer Services Operator, Best Social Gaming Operator, and Best Casino Operator. That’s four of the total nine Operator categories represented in the EGR North America Awards ceremony.

“It’s always meaningful when peers in the industry recognize the quality of our business, especially across a broad spectrum of categories,” said Richard Schwartz, president of RSI. “Similar to last year, we are particularly proud of the recognition for our customer service, which reinforces the focus RSI has on offering our players a high quality experience.”

-Richard Schwartz, President RSI

Nothing New for BetRivers’ Rush Street Interactive

This is not by any means RSI’s first soiree at the EGR North America Awards. Backing up to 2017, RSI’s PlaySugarHouse received four nominations – Operator of the Year, Best Casino Operator, Best Product Innovation, and Best Mobile Operator. They took home no trophies that year, but it laid the groundwork for what was to come. 2018 saw RSI bestowed with its first EGR-NA Award, Best Marketing Campaign (PlaySugarHouse).

That was also the year RSI finished development of the BetRivers brand. By 2019, as BetRivers Sports was going mainstream across multiple US states, RSI was being recognized as North America’s Mobile Operator of the Year. It’s been straight up from there.

Last year, RSI was nominated in three categories, including Operator of the Year. They missed that one, but they took home the 2020 EGR-NA Awards for Best Casino Operator and Best Customer Services Operator.

EGR North America isn’t the only prestigious award ceremony RSI has been recognized by, either. The company was also named Digital Operator of the Year at the 2020 Global Gaming Awards.

Could this be the year Rush Street finally claims the most prestigious award of them all? We’ll find out before the month is over. The 2021 EGR North America Awards virtual ceremony will take place on online on Wednesday, May 26.

Schwartz is hopeful, and took a moment to congratulate his entire team on their tremendous success over the last twelve months. “These recognitions are a tribute to the talents of our interactive team, who are driving iGaming innovation, and their commitment to continually improve the quality of our product and customer experience.”

RSI A Shoe-In for Social Gaming Operator?

The odds are pretty high for Rush Street to win the Best Social Gaming Operator Award. It’s not just because they’re only up against a single competitor in KamaGames, either. Yes, the social gaming category offers slim pickings, since most operators are putting their full focus on the real-money side of iGaming, but for RSI, it’s not just a side-gig. It’s a major and purposeful part of their business.

RSI has spent years developing and upgrading its own, in-house social gaming platform. It is, at present, the only social gaming operator in the US to offer digital slot machines, live dealer table games, plus a sportsbook, all in a digital, free-to-play environment.

The social app presents players with hundreds of ways to place virtual bets without spending any real money. It offers famous titles from a series of nearly two dozen high quality game providers. The social sportsbook delivers the thrill of sports betting, minus the risk. Plus, it supports per-registration of members in US states where mobile betting is not yet legal, but pending regulation.

Odds of Winning Best Operator, Support, Casino

The competition in the Customer Support category is almost as slim as Social Gaming, but again – it’s not about the range competition. It’s about the prominence of RSI in each category they’re nominated for.

Best Customer Services Operator 

When it comes to customer services, Rush Street has very high regard. Remember, they won the EGR Best Customer Services Operator Award last year. And while their fellow nominees, Golden Nugget Online Gaming and PointsBet, are surely talented in that department, they don’t have the years of experience, or breadth of services, that RSI’s BetRivers and PlaySugarHouse operations do.

Best Casino Operator

The same can be said of RSI’s shortlisting for the Best Casino Operator award. Indiana laws don’t allow for Hoosiers to access online casino games at this time, but a lot of other states do. RSI currently hosts a leading mobile casino platform in Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. They’ve been nominated in this category multiple times now, and won it in 2020.

2021 Operator of the Year

Last but certainly not least is the crown jewel of EGR-NA – the 2021 Operator of the Year Award. This one is teeming with stiff competition. They’re up against DraftKings, FanDuel, Golden Nugget Online, Monkey Knife Fight, PointsBet and Sports Interaction/Mohawk Online. RSI will have to edge out a lot of its top rivals to secure this one, but their odds are as good as any – if not a little better.

According to Eilers & Krejcik, a leading data analytic firm that specializes in the online gambling industry, Rush Street Interactive ranks #1 in online casino revenue in the US market between Q1-Q3 2020, and second largest casino operator in 2020 in terms of GGR. Gaming Intelligence reports RSI as being the world’s fastest growing publicly listed betting and gaming business. If the experts are right, Rush Street may be celebrating more than esteemed nominations in the weeks to come.

Visit EGR North America for more information, including a run down of all shortlisted nominees, in all categories.