Q1 Earnings Show iGaming Pulling Ahead of Sportsbooks

Four Q1 2026 earnings reports from Caesars Entertainment, Rush Street Interactive, Sportradar and Robinhood reveal a clear market shift: iGaming is delivering stronger growth than sports betting, while prediction markets are drawing more attention from operators, suppliers and analysts.

Caesars gave the clearest operator example. Group revenue rose from $2.79bn to $2.87bn, up 2.7% year-on-year, while digital revenue hit a first-quarter record of $374m, up 11.6%. Digital EBITDA reached $69m, with margins expanding to 18.4%.

Caesars’ iCasino revenue rose 18%, supported by higher volumes and more monthly active users. Sports hold improved to 8.3%, helped by a higher mix of parlays and multi-leg bets. The combination points to stronger casino momentum inside Caesars Digital, while sports betting performance was supported more by hold and product mix.

CEO Tom Reeg framed Caesars Rewards as a key digital advantage. The company has 65 million loyalty members, leaving a large gap between its land-based database and its active digital user base. “There is still a gigantic opportunity in converting customers in our database that play digitally elsewhere,” he said.

Rush Street Interactive posted the strongest operator quarter in the group. Revenue rose 41% to $370.4m, net income climbed 134% to $26.2m, and adjusted EBITDA rose 81% to $60.2m. RSI also raised full-year revenue guidance to $1.49bn–$1.54bn.

RSI’s growth came mainly from iGaming, not sports betting. Monthly active users reached about 839,000, up 51% globally. In North American online casino markets, MAUs rose 62%. CEO Richard Schwartz said prediction markets are more focused on sports event contracts, while RSI’s growth is being driven by its casino-first strategy.

Sportradar’s report added the supplier angle. Revenue reached €347m in constant currency terms, up 11%, while Betting Technology and Solutions revenue rose 15%. CEO Carsten Koerl named prediction markets and iGaming as new growth areas, a notable shift for a business built around sports betting data.

Robinhood showed why prediction markets are now part of the gambling-sector conversation. Total net revenue rose 15% to $623m, while other transaction revenue, mainly event contracts, jumped 320% to $147m. Event contracts traded reached 8.8bn in the quarter.

Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev said the company has handled more than nine billion prediction-market contracts from over one million customers since launch. The company also announced Rothera, a joint venture with Susquehanna International Group that acquired MIAXdx to build a CFTC-licensed prediction market exchange.

💡 TGJ Take

The Q1 read-through is clear: casino-led operators have a better growth story than sportsbook-led operators. Caesars is growing digital through better monetisation, iCasino strength and its loyalty database. RSI’s numbers support its casino-first positioning, while Robinhood shows how quickly event contracts are scaling outside traditional betting. For sportsbook-led operators, prediction markets are now a competitive pressure to track in acquisition, retention and product planning.