DraftKings Q2 losses hit £123.2m as company positions itself for “opportunistic M&A”

DraftKings recorded net revenue losses of $161.4m (£123.2m) in Q2 with adjusted EBITDA losses also reaching $57.5m (£43.9m). Costs relating to capital markets advisory, external legal work and moving to a new headquarters in Boston equalled $29m (£22.1m). Proforma operational expenses, including marketing, admin and technology, reached $175m (£133.6m) during the period.

Following a successful equity offering in June, two months after its initial listing on the Nasdaq, DraftKings secured over $800m (£610.6m) in additional investment, resulting in a balance sheet at the end of Q2 of over $1.2bn (£916m). DraftKings CEO Jason Robins told investors the firm was in a good position to explore “opportunistic M&A” over the coming period. Expanding on the point, Robins said he did not feel the firm needed to make another big purchase (after the acquisition of SBTech in April) as it has the “critical pieces to proceed” in the industry. He said: “We feel that after the last transaction we have the critical pieces that we need to proceed at least for now. “But I think there could be some opportunities that perhaps would not have otherwise presented themselves given the events of the last few months,” he added. On technology, Robins said the firm would seek to bring more gaming tech in-house, beyond the proprietary casino games it already develops. “Due to the nature of the industry, it is important to have a wide swathe of content,” he said. “Though I think you’ll see us outsource a lot of that, but we’re going to continue to work on developing our own proprietary games and increasing the amount of traffic that we get to those games.” Robins said the SBTech integration was still on track to be finished by September 2021. Although the operator has a slew of new in-game sports betting features in its pocket, it will likely have to wait until the integration is completed to launch them.