Following the publication of DraftKings’ nine-month results up to September 2019, CEO Jason Robins said investors in the US are not necessarily looking at short-term results or current-quarter performance.

With the operator now publishing its full-year results, announcing a tremendous rate of growth countered by huge costs, Gambling Insider wanted to assess whether that is indeed the case.

Before the impact of the coronavirus, which is having a crippling effect on all stock markets, we spoke to Betsson AB CEO Pontus Lindwall on the matter, with the executive corroborating Robins’ assessment.

In the US, Lindwall says, investors will evaluate longer-term indicators due to the relative youth of the legalised sports betting market.

He tells Gambling Insider: “I think it may be more valid in their (DraftKings’) case, because they are obviously in a very strong growth phase.

“The US market is fairly new to regulated internet gaming. The financial markets are now learning what this is about. The operators grow close to three-digit figures over there, whereas we have been around for many years and are in markets that are more mature

“In our case, I think the financial markets tend to look at the performance for each quarter, as well as looking forward to coming quarters, because they need to see the trend of where we’re going.”

The composition of investors across both markets may subsequently vary, according to Lindwall, with funds looking more at current-quarter performance with European operators – and thereby expected dividends.

“Obviously, investors now look to find us big internet gaming companies going back to growth in 2020,” the Betsson AB CEO explains.

“In young markets like the US, it’s of course very interesting to focus on the coming quarters and even the coming years; whereas in Europe, we have been around for a long time and have shown profits, giving dividends for many, many years.

“So maybe we have a different investor composition as well, where we have funds looking for dividends.”