DraftKings CEO and co-founder Jason Robins fired back at Fortune magazine over a recent story that deemed the company was “struggling”in the headline.
Robins appeared at the Front Office Sports Asset Class event in New York on Tuesday and was interviewed by FOS editor-in-chief Dan Roberts. During the conversation, Roberts made note of the August Fortune story, which came under the headline “Exclusive: Struggling DraftKings awards $30 million marketing contract to cofounder who recently stepped down.”
“That was a total hit piece, so obviously they’re gonna throw that in there. I mean what can you do about that right?” Robins asked.
“We’ve had enough of those as you know … Listen, they can put whatever they want in the headline. As you know there’s not much oversight of those things so I don’t know what they’re basing that on other than our stock being down I guess but business itself certainly isn’t struggling. We’re doing great.”
As of Tuesday, DraftKings stock is trading at under $25 per share, down more than 50% since early 2025. Robins was asked how carefully he monitors the stock price.
“Day to day, of course I check it,” he answered. “Worry about it day to day, not really, because you drive yourself crazy worrying day to day about it. Obviously, there’s certain days like our earnings releases when we’re more worried about it, but on a typical day to day basis, no. But I do look at it every day. I mean, kind of hard not to, especially being somebody who likes numbers and stats like I do.”
Robins continued, “In terms of the stock, it’s really not in the category of something that we directly control. We can certainly influence by having the right story and the right facts out there, and I try my best to do that. But if there’s a perception that we know really can only be addressed through proof, through time and actual results, then that’s actually very relieving. Because [now] I know what we need to do, to focus on executing, and if we execute, then the stock will follow. Obviously, nobody likes seeing their stock beaten up.”
Robins pointed to a dichotomy that he perceives, in that DraftKings has been ramping up its status in the prediction-market space, but its stock has fallen in part because of new competition from platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket. Meanwhile, the stock has seen gains when court rulings have seemingly threatened prediction markets’ long-term legality.
“The other weird thing is it’s getting beaten up on predictions, and we like predictions, so it’s this bizarre thing where we see a headline that is positive on predictions, and everyone in the company [celebrates] and our stock goes down. Or we see like the Ninth Circuit rules against predictions, and we’re like, ugh, and the stock pops and so it’s this weird disconnect between us feeling happy about things or not happy, and the stock having this completely opposite reaction, which is a first,” Robins said.
“I mean, we’ve only been public six years, but I’ve had things I felt like got blown out of proportion. Not until now have I ever had something that literally was being viewed exactly the opposite way that internally we’re looking at it.”
