The 2018 NFL season is fast approaching and DraftKings is getting ready for what the daily fantasy sports company’s CEO calls their “holiday season”. The beginning of football season is a busy time for DraftKings as new users come on board and old ones re-activate their accounts in search of huge cash prizes. DraftKings just announced that they have a new DFS game called “Flash Draft” in which users can draft a whole new roster while NFL games are in progress.
DraftKings is already looking to the future to a time when they will be placing more focus on sports betting than fantasy sports. CEO Jason Robins believes that DraftKings will become more of a sports betting company than a DFS company in 2 or 3 years.
He feels that once ten or more states legalize sports betting, the lines will cross and sports betting revenue will outdo DFS revenue. This isn’t to say that nobody will be playing DFS. It just means that more people will be betting on sporting events.
At the moment, there are only a handful of states that have legalized sports wagering, so DFS is still extremely popular. Robins claims that people residing in states that where sports betting is still illegal are turning to DraftKing’s DFS platform as a second-best option while they wait for legalized betting in their state.
DraftKings Wants To Offer More Products
DraftKings became the first company to release a legal sports betting platform in New Jersey. MGM promptly followed suit with their PlayMGM app and they also made headlines when they became the first casino to partner with the NBA. As more casinos get into the sports betting action, both DraftKings and FanDuel find themselves awkwardly between phases. Both currently get the overwhelming majority of their business from DFS but that isn’t expected to be the case for much longer.
In a statement, DraftKings CEO Robins said
The handcuffs have been taken off, at least in New Jersey or anywhere else that legalizes it. Now we can pretty much do almost anything. Forgetting even the traditional sportsbook stuff, I’m most excited about the types of new products, things that people play in their offices, Super Bowl squares, March Madness brackets, there’s all kinds of stuff that previously had to happen underground
