Co-Founder and President
DraftKings
Matt Kalish, co-founder and president of DraftKings, is a leading executive in the sports betting industry. Since co-founding the company in 2012, Matt has guided DraftKings to become one of the most successful sportsbooks in America. In 2020, he led DraftKings’ IPO on the NASDAQ.
Matt Kalish has achieved many great things over the course of his career, and his experience and leadership role at DraftKings have allowed him to drive the company to success in a crowded marketplace. In 2022, the company’s net cash flow exceeded $625 million.
In 2021, DraftKings signed a multi-year deal to become the co-official sports betting partner of the NBA. In May 2022, the company acquired gambling operator Golden Nugget for $1.56bn.
Before he achieved success as the President and co-founder of DraftKings, Matt Kalish held several roles, including as an Operations Analyst at Fidelity Investments from mid-2004 to mid-2005. He also spent about 4 months as a reporting analyst at Microsoft.
Kalish then spent a three-year stint as General Manager at Capital One from 2006 to 2009. He later became CRM Marketing Manager for Vistaprint, a role he held from 2009 to 2012.
It was during his time at Vistaprint that he met colleagues Jason Robins and Paul Liberman, with whom he would found DraftKings in 2012. He became the CEO of Hardscope in November 2025.
Discussing the company’s early inception, Matt noted that DraftKings was positioned to capitalize on demand for sports betting, especially after the Supreme Court cleared the way for online sports betting.
When you looked at other things [DFS players do], one of the strongest was sports betting… So, even before the Supreme Court ruled, we were working on the product. When it happened, we were pretty well-positioned.
Matt Kalish
A: Matt Kalish is the co-founder and President of DraftKings, helping build the company into one of the leading sportsbooks in the US.
A: Kalish co-founded DraftKings in 2012 alongside Jason Robins and Paul Liberman after working together at Vistaprint.
A: He helped guide DraftKings through its 2020 NASDAQ IPO, a multi-year partnership with the NBA, and the 2022 acquisition of Golden Nugget.
A: Before co-founding DraftKings, Kalish worked at Fidelity Investments, Microsoft, Capital One, and Vistaprint in various analytical and management roles.
A: In addition to his leadership at DraftKings, Kalish became CEO of Hardscope in November 2025.
