DraftKings is one of the leaders in the US mobile sports betting industry, and its CEO, Jason Robins, shared his views on the future of the industry at the 4th annual Craig-Hallum Online Gaming Conference earlier this week.
Sports Betting & iGaming Prospects in 2025
Missouri recently passed sports betting legislation, and it is expected to launch in the Show Me State in 2025. And although 38 states plus Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico already have some form of sports betting—mobile, retail, or both—DraftKings CEO Jason Robins sees “another huge growth year.”
“Every sign is pointing to that,” Robins said. “Obviously, really excited about state legislative front. 2024 was an election year. It’s always hard to get gaming bills done in an election year. I think this year coming up, 2025, we’re going to get some real momentum, potentially even get some iGaming bills over the hump, which should be great.”
Path to Market Leadership
As for where he sees DraftKings’ place in the sports betting industry pecking order, which is considered a close second to the Flutter Entertainment juggernaut, Robins was bullish on his company’s prospects to become the undisputed leader in the marketplace.
“If you look at it from a handle share standpoint, we’re actually neck and neck, even a little ahead of them,” Robins said. “Player-wise, we’re about even. So, I like the fact that we’re at a place where we get sort of the same benefits of network effects and other kinds of things that come with being a market leader, but we’re actually still staring at so much upside with every move upward of hold rate.”
Sports Betting Duopoly
The domestic sports betting market has exploded since the US Supreme Court overturned PASPA in 2018, the legislation that prohibited the vast majority of states from launching their own mobile and retail sports betting industry.
Since that time, states have steadily come aboard and passed sports betting legislation that has created a robust new tax revenue stream that funds a wide range of government projects. Two companies, DraftKings and FanDuel, enjoyed a big head start as both had cultivated millions of daily fantasy sports (DFS) users that were easily convertible to sports bettors.
To this day, no other sports betting platform has been able to come close to generating the handles and revenues of the sports betting duopoly that currently reigns across the nation. However, major gaming companies like Caesars, MGM, and Penn National (owners of ESPN Bet), to name a few, continue to innovate new technologies and improve their products to compete with the industry leaders.
There are now 30 states, plus Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, that offer mobile sports betting, while eight others offer solely land-based sportsbooks normally found inside casinos. The millions of tax dollars that flow from the sportsbooks’ revenues have been irresistible to most states, and those that remain on the sidelines are likely to join the sports betting industry sooner than later.
The Last Holdouts
California and Texas are the two largest states that have yet to pass sports betting legislation, but once they do, they will immediately be among the largest US markets in the industry. Tribal concerns regarding control of the industry have hindered the passage of sports betting in the Golden State while conservative legislators have balked at passing legislation in Texas.
