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Rush Street Interactive (RSI) has expanded the testing of its BetRivers Poker platform to include real money play.
Online poker in Pennsylvania could soon expand as BetRivers Poker will launch “shortly” in the Keystone State, according to a person claiming to be the poker marketing director for the platform in several messages posted to social media on Monday. The person said RSI would host an “early access soft launch session this week” and that BetRivers players physically in the Keystone State would receive $50 for participating.
RSI has not confirmed the authenticity of the posts, but they appear to be genuine. They also align with many observations by pokerfuse over the last several months, including:
- In June, the poker room manager at Rivers Casino Philadelphia confirmed that RSI was taking steps to keep its players engaged with the land-based poker room after the mobile platform launches.
- A screenshot of BetRivers Poker surfaced in July that included a responsible gaming logo issued by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB).
- Earlier this month, a PGCB spokesman confirmed that BetRivers Poker was going through a “closed soft launch” expected to last several days.
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Support for MTTs Confirmed for First Time
One surprising post said that BetRivers Poker will support multi-table tournaments (MTTs).
Up until now, it was assumed that BetRivers Poker would support MTTs at some point, but it was not confirmed to be available when the platform launches. Jason Senti, Head of Run It Once poker, said back in March 2022 that MTTs were expected to be included as part of its offering to players.
When, RSI acquired Run It Once poker in March 2022, the platform — which was a project of online poker guru Phil Galfond and available only to players outside the US — did not support multi-table tournaments, although it was in the process of adding tournaments to its offerings at the time of its acquisition.
Posts Show Progress Being Made
Closed soft launches are usually invite-only affairs, so the recent posts that a soft launch was in progress — and included real money play — suggest Chicago-based RSI is close to launching BetRivers Poker, about two-and-a-half years after it bought the platform from Galfond.
The PGCB spokesman told pokerfuse on September 5 that a public launch would not necessarily follow the closed soft launch period. But by inviting Pennsylvania players to participate in real money testing, RSI is showing that the testing is, at the very least, making marked progress.
The posts also strongly suggest that RSI doesn’t care at this stage whether Pennsylvania is a segregated market or if it’s a member of the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA), a multi-state gaming compact that supports online poker. Its members currently include Delaware, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, and West Virginia.
Operators in MSIGA jurisdictions can combine their player pools across the member states.
An aggressive strategy would see RSI launch BetRivers Poker in at least three states initially — Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Launches in Delaware, Nevada, Ontario, and West Virginia are also possible.
