Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: All right, let's stay on sports here.
Speaker 3: The spread of legal gambling has changed how millions of
Speaker 3: Americans root for their favorite teams, and the US sports
Speaker 3: gambling industry has seen more than two hundred and twenty
Speaker 3: billion dollars wagered in the five years since the Supreme
Speaker 3: Court essentially legalized what was previously in underground market. Joining
Speaker 3: US Now, I'm pleased to say we have Draftking CEO
Speaker 3: Jason Robbins, and I actually do want to ask you
Speaker 3: about Taylor Swift. But let me start with, of course,
Speaker 3: the NFL regular season it's now underway. What visibility do
Speaker 3: you have on whether the betting handle on pro football
Speaker 3: will be more robust than what we saw last season?
Speaker 4: Well, if Thursday night's any indicator, we're off to a
Speaker 4: fantastic start. We had big year over year growth and
Speaker 4: a ton of interest in the new player marks, especially
Speaker 4: the touchdown markets that we were putting out there. We
Speaker 4: had over six hundred and forty one pre match market
Speaker 4: same thing, and tonight we traded over thirteen hundred live
Speaker 4: markets last night. So just more content, more fun stuff
Speaker 4: to bet on, and a lot of year over year growth.
Speaker 2: How does it.
Speaker 1: Compare with what you're seeing from prior years, if there
Speaker 1: was any indicator, how do you kind of project out?
Speaker 1: Especially now we were kind of talking about it during
Speaker 1: the commercial break. Clearly the NFL is hitting new markets.
Speaker 1: The Packers are playing in South Pallo tonight. What does
Speaker 1: that mean for you?
Speaker 4: Well, I think it's fantastic that the NFL is expanding globally.
Speaker 2: I think it'll be great for interest in the sport.
Speaker 4: Obviously we're very focused on the US, but I do
Speaker 4: think the more global interest in the sport is just
Speaker 4: something we're rising.
Speaker 2: Tide lifts, all ships.
Speaker 4: And really, you know, I think it's just part of
Speaker 4: the overall trend we're seeing where more and more people
Speaker 4: around the world are getting interested in things Internationally. You
Speaker 4: see the same thing in the US where a lot
Speaker 4: of the betting is occurring on sports being played overseas.
Speaker 2: So I just think it's.
Speaker 4: More and more of the world being globalized and people
Speaker 4: being you know, having more access to things. In NFL's
Speaker 4: great contents, you put it in front of people and
Speaker 4: they're going to enjoy it.
Speaker 5: A couple of cheeseheads here on set really is a Green.
Speaker 2: Bay Packers fan.
Speaker 5: I love when I love Jason, when the US legalizes
Speaker 5: things that people are doing anyway, you know, in the dark.
Speaker 5: But I wonder how concerned you are about a rise
Speaker 5: in gambling problems. People picking are taking money out of
Speaker 5: retirement accounts, charging up credit cards. I mean, we hear
Speaker 5: more and more of these stories. It's obviously an addiction
Speaker 5: for many many people. How does DraftKings deal.
Speaker 2: With that problem?
Speaker 4: Well, I think it's a very important topic you bring
Speaker 4: up in one of the major reasons why it does
Speaker 4: make sense to have a legal, regulated market. We have
Speaker 4: tens of millions of dollars that we're investing in responsible
Speaker 4: gaming every year. We have almost one hundred employees working
Speaker 4: on it on their own. You know, one hundred percent
Speaker 4: of their job is reponsible gaming, and so, you know,
Speaker 4: it's something that we're really putting major investment into, and
Speaker 4: we have a number of different ways that.
Speaker 2: We approach it.
Speaker 4: We have tools that we give to players where they
Speaker 4: can set limits for themselves. We have models that we
Speaker 4: build that help us understand and flag risky behavior, and
Speaker 4: we have a player protection team that is trained to
Speaker 4: have targeted conversations with people. When those models, you know,
Speaker 4: set off certain flags, So I think it's a real
Speaker 4: important part of having a legal regulated market and an
Speaker 4: unregulated market, you're going to have no protections of those
Speaker 4: sorts for consumers, and people will just sort of be
Speaker 4: left to their own devices. And I think that you know,
Speaker 4: in the legal regulated market, not only those requirements, but
Speaker 4: they actually become competitive advantages because people want to play
Speaker 4: in a place that they perceive as doing the right
Speaker 4: thing by customers and doing it in the right way.
Speaker 3: I did see some study or report or article about
Speaker 3: people actually stopping day trading or cutting back on day
Speaker 3: trading because now they're trading more on sports, so there's
Speaker 3: some replacement behavior going on as well. But I actually
Speaker 3: want to ask you about taxes because of course August
Speaker 3: was a very volatile month for draftking shares. You had
Speaker 3: to announced a planned tax surcharge in those higher tax
Speaker 3: states that would help offset the cost of revenue based
Speaker 3: gaming taxes. You ultimately withdrew that plan, but other plans
Speaker 3: along those lines under consideration to help mitigate the effect
Speaker 3: of those high tax those high state gaming taxes.
Speaker 4: Well, at the moment, we're really focused on NFL season
Speaker 4: and listening to what our customers want and how we
Speaker 4: can put out the best product and do the best
Speaker 4: job we can to make our customers feel like DraftKings
Speaker 4: is the place that they want to play. You know,
Speaker 4: that's something at some point down the line we may revisit,
Speaker 4: but right now we kind of heard the customer feedback.
Speaker 4: It was something that you know, didn't get received in
Speaker 4: a way that we felt made sense for us to pursue.
Speaker 2: And that's what we're really all about.
Speaker 4: We I think, as a company, really emphasized culturally listening
Speaker 4: to the customer and following the customer, and so right
Speaker 4: now with the start of NFL season, we're one thousand
Speaker 4: percent focused on serving our customers and understanding how they're
Speaker 4: enjoying and what we can do better to give them
Speaker 4: the best experience possible.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about strategy here as well, Jason,
Speaker 1: because you have agreed to buy simple Bet, which looks
Speaker 1: to place wagers during a live sporting event. What does
Speaker 1: this mean for DraftKings. How significant is this for you?
Speaker 4: Well, I'm very excited about simple Bet one. Most importantly,
Speaker 4: we're getting a great team. I really have been so
Speaker 4: impressed by all the folks there, and the talent is
Speaker 4: always what makes these types of deals, But we're also
Speaker 4: getting great technology. They've built an incredible micro betting product
Speaker 4: and have a ton of other technology that can be
Speaker 4: useful for building out our live betting offering. So I
Speaker 4: think between the team and the tech stact they have,
Speaker 4: this is really going to put us in a position
Speaker 4: to accelerate our efforts and live betting and hopefully make
Speaker 4: it something where we're clearly ahead of the competitive field.
Speaker 5: You know, the interest, yeah, of women for football, for example,
Speaker 5: obviously a sword because maybe in part Taylor Swift is
Speaker 5: Dave Travis kelcey and knows the games all the time.
Speaker 3: I've heard that, and she of course was at the
Speaker 3: game last night, Jason. She was also in what the
Speaker 3: NFL had a little preview of the season ahead. She
Speaker 3: appeared in that multiple times. So more women are watching
Speaker 3: the NFL, or more women betting with DraftKings as a result.
Speaker 2: Well, it's hard to say if it's a result.
Speaker 4: We are certainly seeing a rise in women betting on DraftKings,
Speaker 4: and you know, of course that's been a trend for
Speaker 4: a few years for us, So you know, I think
Speaker 4: there's some tailwind in just general momentum in that direction.
Speaker 4: I can't you know, really attribute it to Taylor, But
Speaker 4: I'm sure it can't hurt certainly. I know a lot
Speaker 4: of people who love her, including me, you know, enjoy
Speaker 4: talking about it, and it gives me something to talk
Speaker 4: about it with my wife. Maybe I can get her
Speaker 4: to start making a few bets too. Haven't got my
Speaker 4: wife to make any bets yet, but I'm working on it.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: To that end, about more women betting, you know, a
Speaker 1: conversation I've been having over the last twenty four hours
Speaker 1: is what media rights would mean for women's sports to
Speaker 1: take off more. I'm curious about that more largely for
Speaker 1: you too, Jason. When you see Amazon, for example, entering
Speaker 1: the sphere in this massive, massive way with the NBA
Speaker 1: with podcast rights, you know, how does that change the
Speaker 1: way that you interact with different platforms, type of audiences
Speaker 1: that you grab as the media landscape changes around sports.
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, I think the more ways that
Speaker 4: you know, and the more companies, media companies and tech
Speaker 4: companies that are interested in getting eyeballs on sports, that's
Speaker 4: great for the ecosystem. It starts with having the content
Speaker 4: out there so people can consume it, and having partners
Speaker 4: that are really motivated to create the best you know, experience,
Speaker 4: the best broadcast, the best stream around that content.
Speaker 2: So really excited to see that.
Speaker 4: And you know, for US, I think women's sports is
Speaker 4: a huge growth opportunity. W NBA has been a great
Speaker 4: story for US, Women's college basketball has been growing like crazy.
Speaker 2: You know, I think women's sports.
Speaker 4: Is going to be one of the great growth stories
Speaker 4: of the online sports betting industry for the next several
Speaker 4: years and beyond. And it's not just women betting though,
Speaker 4: it's really everybody. You know, men are betting on women's
Speaker 4: sports just as much is they're betting on Excuse me,
Speaker 4: the men betting on women's sports are actually greater than
Speaker 4: the women betting on women's sports, just because there's more
Speaker 4: male better. So I think what's awesome is to see
Speaker 4: it's not just women coming out of the platform betting
Speaker 4: on women's sports.
Speaker 2: It's really everybody.
Speaker 1: Jason, we got to leave it there. We thank you
Speaker 1: for your time, of course, at the start of a
Speaker 1: hot NFL season. That is Jason Robbin's CEO of Draft Gings.
Speaker 2: This is Bloomberg