Ahead of Super Bowl LV, sportsbook DraftKings is seeing record activity on the platform. CEO Jason Robins said the boost in usage is likely due to more people staying home and using discretionary income to place bets since their typical hobbies are on pause due to the pandemic.
"It's been a really amazing year for us from a customer acquisition perspective," Robins told Cheddar. "Engagement of customers and retention rates have been higher than we've ever seen before."
At the onset of the pandemic, DraftKings and other sportsbooks were greatly impacted by the halt of professional and collegiate sports but according to Robins, efforts by sports leagues to improve contact tracing and testing proved to be beneficial for his own company.
As for the Big Game, Robins said about 60 percent of moneyline bets are still being placed for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers despite betting odds being stacked against the team.
"I guess what that means is that people who are betting on the Bucs think three points isn't enough," he noted. "They might as well go for the higher odds, the better odds, for them winning the game."
Although sports betting isn't legal in all 50 states, DraftKings is running a $55 million free-to-play pool, available in parts of the U.S. and Canada where sports betting is still restricted. Bettors who make a number of selections on their ticket can win a top prize of $1 million. The best part about the offer, according to Robins? Every person who enters the contest will win some kind of prize even up to $25,000. So far, nearly 600,000 people have entered, he said.
This year, Americans in 12 states will be able to place bets using the platform, a jump from just five last year and more than DraftKings' competitors. Robins said he is confident that the company will continue to expand as more states legalize online sports betting and leagues maintain health and safety in the wake of the pandemic.
"I'm pretty optimistic. Obviously, you don't take anything for granted given the events of the past year. I think anything can happen but it seems like the leagues have really figured out, including collegiate sports, how to use data and how to be really smart about the policies they put in place, so I'm very hopeful," Robins added.
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A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
