Ohio: DraftKings to offer $200 in free bets as pre-launch sign-up bonus

The promotion does not even require a player to make an initial deposit, and five early sign-up customers will be selected at random to receive a $100,000 free bet on launch day.  

The move would follow DraftKings’ trend of spending large amounts on customer acquisition, a policy that has had a detrimental effect on the operator’s ability to turn a profit.  

DraftKings reported a net loss of $217.1m for Q2 2022 and $305.5m for Q1 2022 – a combined H1 2022 loss of $684.8m, greater than the $651.9m loss in H1 2021.

Losses have continued to spiral as new markets go live in the US, states where DraftKings enters with a high-risk acquisition model.  

Compared to its competitors, DraftKings’ net loss is staggering. Over the same period (H2 2022), Flutter Entertainment, the parent company of DraftKings’ main rival FanDuel, recorded a net loss of £113m ($128.8m).

And compared to respectively smaller operators, which typically keep losses below the $100m mark, DraftKings’ expenditure looks even more excessive. Rush Street Interactive reported a loss of $80.6m in H1 2022.  

It has long been touted that a time must come when DraftKings investors stop investing heavily if they are to see any long-term gain, let alone gain in the mid-term.  

Recently, it was reported that DraftKings is close to agreeing to a new partnership with ESPN. Although unconfirmed by DraftKings and ESPN, the news saw shares in DraftKings jump as high as 9% in premarket trading. 

ESPN, which is owned by Walt Disney Co, also has stakes in DraftKings having acquired them upon the acquisition of Twenty-First Century Fox’s entertainment assets in March 2019.

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Louis Thompsett

Gambling Writer

Louis Thompsett is a journalist and editor who served as a Staff Writer at Gambling Insider from February 2022 to April 2023, covering key developments across the global gambling, sports betting and iGaming sectors. During his time with the publication, he reported on regulatory updates, operator strategy, technological innovation and market trends, contributing both news coverage and in-depth editorial features for Gambling Insider and its associated titles.

Louis later advanced into senior editorial roles and now works as Editor-in-Chief of FinTech Magazine and InsurTech Digital, where he oversees content strategy and reporting for a global B2B audience across financial and technology sectors.

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