DraftKings CEO Jason Robins said the company is positioned to benefit whether sports prediction markets remain available or are ultimately restricted by courts, while its traditional sportsbook business continues to grow during the NFL season.
Speaking during a fireside chat with Wells Fargo on Tuesday, Robins said DraftKings was monitoring the legal landscape around sports event contracts and wanted greater clarity, but was not actively involved in the ongoing legal challenges.
“It’s funny, if you ask me: I’d rather see them stay, but if they got shut down by the Supreme Court tomorrow, our share prices would pop,” he said. “We’re in a good position either way. We’re set up regardless of the outcome.”
Multiple requests are before the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the issue, including those involving New Jersey, Robinhood and Crypto.com.
“We don’t control that process, only the choices we make in how to invest and think about long-term value creation,” Robins said.
Robins said DraftKings has reached double-digit market share in sports prediction markets in its active markets, while prediction-market volume has risen to nearly 2.5 times its July total.
More than 1 million customers have used DraftKings’ prediction product, and Robins expects that figure to reach multiple millions before the NFL season ends. He said DraftKings has about three times the NFL offers of competing platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket.
“We’ve gone really quickly from objectively not the greatest prediction market to the best sports product,” Robins said.
The company has also been able to cross-sell prediction-market customers into products including Pick 6, daily fantasy sports and crypto trading.
Robins described prediction markets as a “huge incremental (total addressable market)” and said the business could have different economics from traditional sports betting.
He said prediction-market margins are “a little lower,” but gross profit could be higher.
“I certainly don’t think there’s a lot of reason to believe the economics will be worse,” Robins said.
Beyond prediction markets, DraftKings’ sportsbook handle increased about 15% year over year during the first two weeks of the NFL season. The company’s parlay mix also increased by 300 basis points, while Robins said iGaming market-share growth was accelerating in legal markets.
“That core business is on track to deliver $1 billion in adjusted EBITDA and increasing in 2027,” Robins said.
Robins attributed the company’s iGaming market-share gains to sustained execution and changes to its team, leadership and product roadmap.
“It’s a lot of little things and execution over a sustained period of time. One or two don’t move the needle, but a collection of dozens or more over months or years add up. It takes time for customers to notice.”
DraftKings is also considering accelerating some customer-acquisition and marketing spending originally planned for 2027. Robins said the decision would depend on customer and trading data from the remainder of the NFL season.
“It’s too early to say magnitude, but with exciting early [NFL] results, we do anticipate spending more. It will be data-dependent, but we could see meaningful new investment and could accelerate revenue next year.”