In the shadow of a pandemic, the sports betting giant, DraftKings became a public company last week, following its merger with Diamond Eagle Acquisition and SBTech. The merger was approved by Diamond Eagle’s shareholders on Thursday.
Jason Robins, the co-founder and CEO of DraftKings, said that the event marks another milestone for the company and the future of digital sports entertainment and gaming in the United States.
“By bringing together our leading consumer brand, data science expertise and industry-leading products with SBTech’s proven technology platform, we will accelerate our innovation, growth and scale,” said Robins. “I am confident that the new DraftKings will progress our goal of offering the best, most innovative sports and gaming products to our customers.”
While COVID-19 will certainly have an impact on DraftKings – and the entire industry as a whole – Robins said that it was important to remember that the company has access to $500 million in cash in order to fund its operations.
Robins said that although we are living in extraordinary times and DraftKings understand that governments are prioritizing the response to the virus, eventually the company expects to return to “a new normal.”
“At that time,” said the CEO, “we expect that the demand in states for legal sports betting will resume.”
Robins predicts that people in the United States will continue to “have a strong appetite for sports.”
Ever since the US Supreme Court lifted a federal ban on sports betting, 14 states have legalized the activity in some form or another, with more expected to join the fold by the end of the year. DraftKings operates its sportsbook in eight of these states, while its legendary fantasy sports offerings are available in 43 states.
DraftKings has its headquarters in Boston, and employees over 2,300 people from around the world. The company also has offices in New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Tel Aviv, Dublin and Sofia.
DraftKings started its first day of trading on Friday, and shares rose 10.4% to close at $19.35.
