DraftKings Inc. Company profile
DraftKings (DKNG) is a daily fantasy sports and sports betting company based in Boston, Massachusetts, US. It also designs, develops, and licenses sports betting and casino gaming platform software for online and retail sportsbooks, as well as casino gaming goods.
Users can participate for prize money in fantasy sports-related events in five major American sports, including the Premier League and UEFA Champions League soccer, and NASCAR auto racing, on a daily and weekly basis.
Jason Robins, Matthew Kalish and Paul Liberman founded the company in 2012. The three founders were former employees of a Dutch e-commerce company, Vistaprint, which makes digital and physical marketing products for small businesses.
DraftKings went public on the Nasdaq on 24 April 2020 after a tri-merger with Diamond Eagle, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), and SBTech, a Bulgarian gambling technology firm.
Two years after it was founded, the company managed to grow its users’ base by more than 50% through acquisition of its rival DraftStreet in July 2014.
In November 2016, DraftKings and rival FanDuel agreed to merge, but the planned corporate action was terminated in July 2017. The Federal Trade Commission blocked the merger plan because the combined company would have controlled 90% of the market for daily fantasy sports.
In August 2018, the company launched DraftKings Sportsbook in New Jersey, following the repeal of the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which allowed states to legalise online sports betting. DraftKings Sportsbook is available in 13 states in the United States as of February 2021, including New York, Illinois, Colorado and Tennessee.
DraftKings completed three merger and acquisition deals in 2021, including Vegas Sport Information Network Inc.