He believes that even though many states have legalised the activity over the last 12 months, the three largest states by population still do not have legal sports betting options. However, “it’s a great opportunity to keep expanding sports betting into more states and keep getting more people over from the illegal market.”
The DraftKings CEO feels there is a balance to be had of attracting new people to a betting app, while at the same time not offering odds that are too attractive for the customer – and therefore unprofitable.
Events such as the Super Bowl are the perfect time to acquire new customers and to activate engagement. He sees that with popular sports come the opportunity for people to try out a product and for an operator like DraftKings to encourage those who haven’t played in a while to return.
According to Robins, there are still over 30 million people betting illegally, which indicates an already strong and built-up market. There isn’t a need to find a product “fit” because the appetite is already there.
Robins points out that there are tens of millions of people that were already planning on making a bet on the game, despite the legalities.
He commented: “So I think that's why you're seeing such aggressive activity on the customer acquisition side. There's just a flood of new customers coming into the legally regulated industry right now.”
But did Robins plan on making any bets himself on the Super Bowl? Well, despite a love of betting, he did not.
Through an obvious conflict of interest, he feels it’s easiest to “steer clear” and enjoy playing a few games of daily fantasy sports instead.
