The return of major live sports action across the United States powered a big rise in Q3 revenue for DraftKings, who almost doubled their take, year-on-year, to US$132.8m (£100.7m/€112.2m) for the quarter.
Although the Boston-based fantasy sports and sportsbook company’s overall net losses continue to grow (by more than a little), DraftKings has, nevertheless, upped its full-year earnings forecast for 2020 because of the positive uptick.
DraftKings Chief Executive Jason Robins tagged the return of the NBA, MLB and NHL–and the kick-off of the new NFL season–as big drivers, which generated “tremendous” customer engagement.
B2C operations, for example, were up almost 55 per cent and brought in US$103.7m (£78.6m/€87.6m). And average monthly unique players, over the quarter, grew by 64.4 per cent to one million punters.
DraftKings launched mobile sports betting and iGaming in Illinois and West Virginia during Q3 and added Tennessee to its roll call this month, bringing to 10 the number of states where it now operates.
The company has also been named as the first official sports betting operator of golf’s PGA Tour; adding to tie-ins with baseball’s MLB franchises the Chicago Cubs and Colorado Rockies, the NFL’s New York Giants and leading sports broadcaster ESPN.
On the downside, DraftKings Q3 revenue growth was shadowed by a big upshot in operating losses. They ballooned from US$56.2m (£42.6m/€47.5m) in the third-quarter of 2019 to US$348.4m (£264.1m/€294.4m) for the three-months ending September 30 2020.
Year-on-year Q3 loss before EBITA (interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) widened to US$197.1m (£149.4m/€166.5m) — after non-operating items, principally US$117m (£89m/€99m) in stock-based compensation given to executives, were factored in.
Nevertheless, with current revenue, for the nine-months ending September 30, standing at US$321.3m (£243.6m/€271.5m), DraftKings is now estimating full year revenue to hit the US$550m (£417m/€465m) mark, or more, a growth of around 30 per cent.
