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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. It's a winning year

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Speaker 1: so far for DraftKings, the digital sports, entertainment and gaming company,

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Speaker 1: raising its guidance for the rest of the year. The

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Speaker 1: growth boosted by an influx of new customers. Its stock

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Speaker 1: is now up nearly ten percent so far this year,

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Speaker 1: and joining us now is Jason Robbins, Drafting CEO, chairman

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Speaker 1: and co founder. You know, you have this report out

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Speaker 1: the guidance being raised here, and I hate to do

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Speaker 1: this to you, but you know, can you raise it

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Speaker 1: even more given the new customers you're getting in. I mean,

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Speaker 1: how much upside do you really see throughout the year

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Speaker 1: and what could raise the bar for you?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think there's a lot of upside maining throughout

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Speaker 2: the year. We have a number of different initiatives underway,

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Speaker 2: and also customer acquisition keeps out performing what we expect.

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Speaker 2: So really, I think the trend is good right now,

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Speaker 2: and a lot of the initiatives we have planned for

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Speaker 2: the back half of the year will be rolling out

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Speaker 2: with the start of football season, and so I think

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Speaker 2: we'll know a lot more then, but definitely feel like

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Speaker 2: we have some good stuff planned on the product front

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Speaker 2: and I definitely think there's some upside When you.

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Speaker 1: Think about the new customers being brought in, where are

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Speaker 1: they coming from? And I guess how new what is

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Speaker 1: the market potential here for you?

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Speaker 2: They're really coming across the board. Obviously, part of it

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Speaker 2: is we launched two new states, North Carolina and Vermont

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Speaker 2: and Q one. New states, you know, typically have a

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Speaker 2: lot of pent up demand and we get a lot

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Speaker 2: of new customers in the first few months. But even

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Speaker 2: the oldest states we have, like New Jersey, continue to

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Speaker 2: see new customers enter the market. So I think it's

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Speaker 2: just a matter of where the industry's at right now.

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Speaker 2: It's still very early. Even the oldest state, New Jersey,

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Speaker 2: only launched about five and a half years ago, and

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Speaker 2: so still just a lot of room to grow.

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Speaker 1: We're talking a little about the NFL season. What are

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Speaker 1: your expectations there on how much that's going to draw

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Speaker 1: to the platform.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think the NFL is like our holiday season.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's the biggest time of year for us

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Speaker 2: to acquire customers. We also make a lot of money

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Speaker 2: then too, but you know NFL doesn't have a high

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Speaker 2: frequency of game, so actually the spread between how much

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Speaker 2: money you make off of NFL and NBA isn't maybe

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Speaker 2: as big as you would think, but definitely from a

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Speaker 2: customer acquisition, customer activation engagement standpoint, NFL is really the

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Speaker 2: most important time of year, and typically the way that

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Speaker 2: we orient our entire product calendar and everything else is

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Speaker 2: around planning for what we want to do for NFL

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Speaker 2: season and then working backwards.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of the NBA, what do you think about a

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Speaker 1: potential NBA Amazon Media deal giving your work with Amazon already, Well, obviously.

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Speaker 2: We have a number of great media partners. Amazon's one

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Speaker 2: of them, you know, and really would be exciting to

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Speaker 2: see if they or any of our partners were able

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Speaker 2: to increase their presence in a key sport like NBA.

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Speaker 2: So we'll see what happens, and obviously we'll stay engaged

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Speaker 2: and you know, look forward to partnering with you know,

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Speaker 2: hopefully multiple companies in the space. Sounds like NBA might

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Speaker 2: be thinking about doing at least three deals, maybe four,

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Speaker 2: so could make for a really interesting landscape.

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Speaker 1: Well, speak about that landscape. Every additional media partner here,

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Speaker 1: what does it translate to in terms of work for you?

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Speaker 2: Well, for us, really a lot of it is the

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Speaker 2: same playbook. We obviously do a little bit different things

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Speaker 2: with different partners, but we really try to optimize across

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Speaker 2: the entire marketing portfolio. So when we figure out something

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Speaker 2: that's working with one relationship, we'll typically try something similar

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Speaker 2: if it's applicable with another. So we get great economies

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Speaker 2: to scale that way in our marketing.

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Speaker 1: Are you seeing new types of customers You kind of

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Speaker 1: talked about customers by state here, but are you seeing

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Speaker 1: different demographics starting to come online thinking about betting more

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Speaker 1: on different sports? Given for example, you saw all of

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Speaker 1: the Taylor Swift fans start to watch football at a

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Speaker 1: greater scale. You're seeing more interest in women's sports as well.

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Speaker 1: What does this mean for you?

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Speaker 2: Well, we definitely see those things impact. I mean, the

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Speaker 2: Taylor Swift impact was certainly a signific to get one

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Speaker 2: during NFL season, and then you know Caitlin Clark and

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Speaker 2: what she was able to do this year for women's

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Speaker 2: college basketball is extraordinary and that drove interest really across

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Speaker 2: all of women's basketball. While we were seeing that drive

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Speaker 2: college basketball interest, we also have now seen people become

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Speaker 2: more interested in the WNBA as well as other women's

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Speaker 2: sports too. Women's sports in general are one of the

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Speaker 2: fastest growing segments we have, and no doubt there's new

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Speaker 2: demographics coming in.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting for a business week recently, we

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Speaker 1: kind of repurposed a story that had been about your

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Speaker 1: presence over at Wrigley Field. Also curious about what baseball

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Speaker 1: is going to be bringing you this year.

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Speaker 2: You know, baseball is a great sport because not only

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Speaker 2: does it get a lot of customer engagement, there's a

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Speaker 2: ton of games, and there's a ton of different things

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Speaker 2: you can bet on. There's stoppages between each pitch, so

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Speaker 2: lots of opportunity for people to bet in real time

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Speaker 2: live betting. So I think baseball is a really well

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Speaker 2: built sport for betting, and really looking forward to seeing

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Speaker 2: and continued engagement that we've gotten off to a great

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Speaker 2: start this year. I think baseball is also a sport

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Speaker 2: that's really in the last year or two with you know,

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Speaker 2: some of the things you know that have driven interest

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Speaker 2: in the game. I think really that viewership lift is

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Speaker 2: also translated over nicely to seeing some growth on our

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Speaker 2: side as well.

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Speaker 1: Jason, when you think about the way Draft Kings is

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Speaker 1: evolving moving forward into different sports and thinking about the

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Speaker 1: way the media landscape is changing around sports. What is

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Speaker 1: bigger for you moving forward, landing new media partnerships or

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Speaker 1: even thinking about something more inquisitive.

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Speaker 2: In the future. You know, I think for us it's

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Speaker 2: really not one thing. It's really a matter of, like

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Speaker 2: you know, looking at lots of different opportunities and more

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Speaker 2: about the individual opportunity itself than categorically m and as

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Speaker 2: the answer, A big new partnership would be the answer.

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Speaker 2: I think right now, we also feel like we're pretty

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Speaker 2: good with what we have, so not to say we

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Speaker 2: aren't always looking for ways to expand and do new deals,

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Speaker 2: but we don't feel like we have to do anything

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Speaker 2: right now. We feel like if we continue to just

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Speaker 2: execute in the way we've been executing with the existing partnerships,

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Speaker 2: in the geographies, in the product categories that we're in,

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Speaker 2: we're going to do just fine. So you know, that

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Speaker 2: really makes it so that we can have a high

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Speaker 2: bar for any new opportunities we take on, and we

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Speaker 2: don't take lightly the fact that there's an opportunity cost

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Speaker 2: everything you do. It's not just a financial cost as well. Well.

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Speaker 1: What would be the bar for you then to do

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Speaker 1: anything inquisitive at this point? What would you be looking for.

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Speaker 2: I think we just have to weigh it against the

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Speaker 2: other ways we can allocate capital and allocate resources. You know,

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Speaker 2: Jackpocket's a great example of that. We looked at what

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Speaker 2: we thought that opportunity would look like, and I think

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Speaker 2: it's stacked up quite favorably against similar metrics that we

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Speaker 2: use to determine whether it's you know, organic investments we

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Speaker 2: make or other forms of capital allocation. But that's really

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Speaker 2: how we look at everything. As we have a return

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Speaker 2: threshold that we would like to get on any capital

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Speaker 2: and any resources that we deploy, and if that threshold

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Speaker 2: is meant, we try to find a way to fund

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Speaker 2: it obviously, you know, being that we can handle it

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Speaker 2: from a resource and capacity standpoint, and then we compare

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Speaker 2: it to constantly refine that threshold against where we think

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Speaker 2: we're at in terms of the value of our equity

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Speaker 2: and other sorts of uses of capital.

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Speaker 1: Jason, we have to leave it there. We thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for joining us on a very busy earning

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Speaker 1: season for you, that is. Jason Robbins of Draftings