Fantasy sports platform DraftKings is betting on sports gambling, CEO Jason Robins told Cheddar at SXSW.
It’s a reversal for the company, which has long held it’s a game of skill, and not a game of chance.
But the move all hinges on a pending legal battle in DC.
“The Supreme Court is considering New Jersey’s case to allow for sports betting in their state, which, depending on how they rule, could effectively end up removing the federal ban on legalizing and regulating sports wagering,” Robins said.
States across the U.S., with the exception of Nevada, have banned sports gambling for 25 years.
But in 2012, former New Jersey’s Governor, Republican Chris Christie, signed a bill into law that effectively legalized sports betting. That set off a series of legal challenges from sports leagues, including the NCAA, the NFL, and the NBA. The case landed in front of the Supreme Court in December 2017, with a decision expected in a few months.
In anticipation, DraftKings has already started building out a product that would facilitate sports betting and is looking into partnerships with licensed brick-and-mortar casinos and content integration.
There is one thing that’s not on the company’s immediate horizon, though: an IPO.
“We eventually want to go public, but I don’t think right now is the right time for us. Probably in the next couple years,” Robins said. “There’s still a lot of work we need to do to be prepared to be a public company.”
Last week reports emerged that rival FanDuel, with whom the company unsuccessfully tried to merge in 2016, was looking to go public through a so-called reverse merger.
2021 was no walk in the park for the tech sector. However, despite the industry dealing with worldwide chip shortage and supply chain crisis, many companies managed to push innovations forward. All these innovations are also expected to accelerate its coolness in 2022. Editor at Large at CNET Ian Sherr, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
The mobile brokerage app, Tornado, says its the first investing platform that combines next-level tools and resources with hyper-tailored investing news. The more you engage within the app, the more intelligent of an investor you'll be, and the more you'll gain from the experience. 'Learn and earn,' the latest feature of the app serves to do just that, as it pays users to learn how to invest. CEO and co-founder of Tornado, Bernard George, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Digital assets are the gifts that keep on giving, as they have the potential to make people serious cash if it's value increases over time. These gifts are ultimately just investments, in the form of art. Sunil Singhvi, chief business development officer at Rarible, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Carlo and Baker preview President Biden's address to the nation as Omicron becomes the new dominant Covid strain. Plus, Trump gets booed for getting his booster and the White House gets a new puppy.
Alinda Mashiku, Conjunction Analysis and Risk Assessment Deputy Manager at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, joins Future of Space: Humankind's Leap Forward to explain how space debris is threatening operations in space at a time when more satellites are being deployed.
