DraftKings CEO Jason Robins Talks Sports Gambling

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All right, let's stay on sports here.

The spread of legal gambling has changed how millions of Americans root for their favorite teams, and the US sports gambling industry has seen more than two hundred and twenty billion dollars wagered in the five years since the Supreme Court essentially legalized what was previously in underground market. Joining US Now, I'm pleased to say we have Draftking CEO Jason Robbins, and I actually do want to ask you about Taylor Swift. But let me start with, of course,

Well, if Thursday night's any indicator, we're off to a fantastic start. We had big year over year growth and a ton of interest in the new player marks, especially the touchdown markets that we were putting out there. We had over six hundred and forty one pre match market same thing, and tonight we traded over thirteen hundred live markets last night. So just more content, more fun stuff to bet on, and a lot of year over year growth.

How does it.

Compare with what you're seeing from prior years, if there was any indicator, how do you kind of project out? Especially now we were kind of talking about it during the commercial break. Clearly the NFL is hitting new markets. The Packers are playing in South Pallo tonight. What does that mean for you?

Well, I think it's fantastic that the NFL is expanding globally.

I think it'll be great for interest in the sport.

Obviously we're very focused on the US, but I do think the more global interest in the sport is just something we're rising.

Tide lifts, all ships.

And really, you know, I think it's just part of the overall trend we're seeing where more and more people around the world are getting interested in things Internationally. You see the same thing in the US where a lot of the betting is occurring on sports being played overseas.

So I just think it's.

More and more of the world being globalized and people being you know, having more access to things. In NFL's great contents, you put it in front of people and they're going to enjoy it.

A couple of cheeseheads here on set really is a Green.

Bay Packers fan.

I love when I love Jason, when the US legalizes things that people are doing anyway, you know, in the dark. But I wonder how concerned you are about a rise in gambling problems. People picking are taking money out of retirement accounts, charging up credit cards. I mean, we hear more and more of these stories. It's obviously an addiction for many many people. How does DraftKings deal.

With that problem?

Well, I think it's a very important topic you bring up in one of the major reasons why it does make sense to have a legal, regulated market. We have tens of millions of dollars that we're investing in responsible gaming every year. We have almost one hundred employees working on it on their own. You know, one hundred percent of their job is reponsible gaming, and so, you know, it's something that we're really putting major investment into, and we have a number of different ways that.

We approach it.

We have tools that we give to players where they can set limits for themselves. We have models that we build that help us understand and flag risky behavior, and we have a player protection team that is trained to

I did see some study or report or article about people actually stopping day trading or cutting back on day trading because now they're trading more on sports, so there's some replacement behavior going on as well. But I actually want to ask you about taxes because of course August was a very volatile month for draftking shares. You had to announced a planned tax surcharge in those higher tax states that would help offset the cost of revenue based

Well, at the moment, we're really focused on NFL season and listening to what our customers want and how we can put out the best product and do the best job we can to make our customers feel like DraftKings is the place that they want to play. You know, that's something at some point down the line we may revisit, but right now we kind of heard the customer feedback. It was something that you know, didn't get received in a way that we felt made sense for us to pursue.

And that's what we're really all about.

We I think, as a company, really emphasized culturally listening to the customer and following the customer, and so right now with the start of NFL season, we're one thousand percent focused on serving our customers and understanding how they're enjoying and what we can do better to give them the best experience possible.

I want to talk about strategy here as well, Jason, because you have agreed to buy simple Bet, which looks to place wagers during a live sporting event. What does this mean for DraftKings. How significant is this for you?

Well, I'm very excited about simple Bet one. Most importantly, we're getting a great team. I really have been so impressed by all the folks there, and the talent is always what makes these types of deals, But we're also getting great technology. They've built an incredible micro betting product and have a ton of other technology that can be

You know, the interest, yeah, of women for football, for example, obviously a sword because maybe in part Taylor Swift is Dave Travis kelcey and knows the games all the time.

I've heard that, and she of course was at the game last night, Jason. She was also in what the NFL had a little preview of the season ahead. She appeared in that multiple times. So more women are watching the NFL, or more women betting with DraftKings as a result.

Well, it's hard to say if it's a result.

We are certainly seeing a rise in women betting on DraftKings, and you know, of course that's been a trend for a few years for us, So you know, I think there's some tailwind in just general momentum in that direction. I can't you know, really attribute it to Taylor, But I'm sure it can't hurt certainly. I know a lot of people who love her, including me, you know, enjoy talking about it, and it gives me something to talk about it with my wife. Maybe I can get her

Well.

To that end, about more women betting, you know, a conversation I've been having over the last twenty four hours is what media rights would mean for women's sports to take off more. I'm curious about that more largely for

Well, first of all, I think the more ways that you know, and the more companies, media companies and tech companies that are interested in getting eyeballs on sports, that's great for the ecosystem. It starts with having the content out there so people can consume it, and having partners that are really motivated to create the best you know, experience, the best broadcast, the best stream around that content.

So really excited to see that.

And you know, for US, I think women's sports is a huge growth opportunity. W NBA has been a great story for US, Women's college basketball has been growing like crazy.

You know, I think women's sports.

Is going to be one of the great growth stories of the online sports betting industry for the next several years and beyond. And it's not just women betting though, it's really everybody. You know, men are betting on women's sports just as much is they're betting on Excuse me, the men betting on women's sports are actually greater than the women betting on women's sports, just because there's more

It's really everybody.

Jason, we got to leave it there. We thank you for your time, of course, at the start of a hot NFL season. That is Jason Robbin's CEO of Draft Gings.

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