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DraftKings CEO and co-founder Jason Robins fired back at Fortune magazine over a recent digital story that declared the company “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 said.
“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 40% in the past twelve months.
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 twice during the interview to what he sees as a misperception: DraftKings has been ramping up its prediction-market business, 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.”
Much of the Fortune story centered on Matt Kalish, an original DraftKings cofounder who, amid his exit as company president, negotiated payments for brokering future endorsement deals. Over the past several months, Kalish has been a vociferous opponent of Kalshi even as DraftKings pushes forward in the prediction-market space.
“I really don’t have much to say about that. Obviously, I know Matt, and I talk to him, and I try to share what I think he should or shouldn’t be saying, but he’s his own person, and I don’t control him,” Robins said.
“When he worked for us, I could tell him what to do, and I can’t anymore. He knows that… I genuinely believe it’s more of his personal views. Remember, he’s a big gambler. He’s a bettor. He really comes at it from the consumer side. He’s the one who understood the customer the best of anybody, so I do truly believe it’s coming from that direction.”
