SPORTS BETTING
US – DraftKings first quarter booms by 253 per cent
By Phil - 8 May 2021
Having launched mobile sports betting in Michigan and Virginia during the first quarter, DraftKings reported revenue of $312m, an increase of 253 per cent compared to $89 million during the same period in 2020.
After giving pro forma effect to the business combination with SBTech and Diamond Eagle Acquisition Corp. which was completed on April 23, 2020, as if it had occurred on January 1, 2019, revenue grew 175% compared to the three months ended March 31, 2020.
“DraftKings is off to an outstanding start in 2021,” said Jason Robins, DraftKings’ co-founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board. “We continued to make progress and remain on track with the migration to our own in-house proprietary sports betting engine, strengthened our content and technology capabilities with the acquisitions of VSiN and BlueRibbon Software, and invested in further differentiating our product offering with the upcoming rollout of social functionality in our DFS and mobile Sportsbook apps.”
Jason Park, DraftKings’ Chief Financial Officer, added: “Our $31m in first quarter revenue, 114% increase in MUPs and 48% growth in ARPMUP reflect solid customer acquisition and retention as well as successful launches of mobile sports betting and iGaming in new states. We are raising our revenue outlook for 2021 due to the outperformance of our core business in the first quarter and our expectation for continued healthy growth.”
As a result, DraftKings is raising its fiscal year 2021 revenue guidance from a range of $900m to $1bn to a range of $1.05bn to $1.15bn, which equates to year-over-year growth of 63 per cent to 79 per cent and a 16 per cent increase compared to the midpoint of our previous guidance.
The increase reflects solid performance in the first quarter of 2021, continued strong user activation due to the effectiveness of our marketing spend, well-executed launches of mobile sports betting and iGaming in Michigan and mobile sports betting in Virginia, and a modest contribution from our recently completed acquisitions.
DraftKings is live with online sports betting in 12 states that collectively represent 25 per cent of the US population. DraftKings is live with iGaming in four states, representing approximately 10 per cent of the US population.
In 2021, 25 state legislatures have introduced legislation to legalise mobile sports betting, five state legislatures have introduced legislation to expand their existing sports wagering frameworks and one state legislature has introduced legislation to legalize sports betting limited to retail locations. In addition, 4 states have introduced iGaming legislation and three states have introduced online poker legislation.
Three of the states that introduced legislation to legalise mobile sports betting this year – Wyoming, Arizona and New York – have already enacted mobile sports wagering laws. Maryland has made significant progress with a mobile and retail sports wagering bill passing the legislature and now pending action from the Governor. The three states that have enacted mobile sports wagering laws this year represent eight per cent of the US population and bring the percentage of the population with legalized mobile sports betting to 35 per cent.
