Key Takeaways
Jason Robins called a Fortune report on a $30M insider marketing deal a “total hit piece.”He says Draftkings shares fall on good prediction market news and rise on court losses.Draftkings stock closed up 4.29% the day the Ninth Circuit ruled against Kalshi.
A Stock That Moves Against Its Own Company
Robins was interviewed by Front Office Sports editor-in-chief Dan Roberts at the outlet’s Asset Class event in New York on Tuesday, and was asked about an August Fortune story headlined “Exclusive: Struggling DraftKings awards $30 million marketing contract to cofounder who recently stepped down.”
“That was a total hit piece, so obviously they’re gonna throw that in there,” he said in response, adding, “listen, they can put whatever they want in the headline. As you know there’s not much oversight of those things so I don’t know what they’re basing that on other than our stock being down I guess but business itself certainly isn’t struggling. We’re doing great.”
In the same conversation, he described a disconnect he says he has not encountered in six years as a public company: Draftkings is building a prediction markets business, yet its shares move as though it were not.
“It’s getting beaten up on predictions, and we like predictions, so it’s this bizarre thing where we see a headline that is positive on predictions, and everyone in the company celebrates and our stock goes down,” he said. “Or we see like the Ninth Circuit rules against predictions, and we’re like, ugh, and the stock pops and so it’s this weird disconnect between us feeling happy about things or not happy, and the stock having this completely opposite reaction, which is a first.”
On Aug. 28, when a Ninth Circuit panel ruled that Nevada could enforce its gaming laws against Kalshi, Draftkings closed up 4.29%, making its strongest session in a month of trading. The company’s shares trade under $25 and are down more than 50% since early 2025. The company acquired Railbird to obtain a federal license, has taken market-maker roles on rival venues alongside Flutter, and holds a seat on the CFTC’s new advisory committee beside Kalshi and Polymarket executives.
Robins did not address the substance of the Fortune report, which documented an agreement giving Draftkings the option to spend up to $30 million over three years with HardScope, a creator-marketing company wholly owned by cofounder Matthew Kalish. Per the report, the deal was signed six weeks before Kalish stepped down as president in March, and HardScope is entitled to a commission of up to 14%. Both sides told Fortune the arrangement was approved by the independent audit committee, and Kalish said the commission was more favorable than what the company pays other agencies.
Fortune’s central point was governance. Its members are chosen by a board on which all three cofounders sit, and Robins controls roughly 88% of voting power on shares representing about 2% of the company’s economic interest. Harvard Law School corporate governance expert Jesse Fried called that “a big red flag,” saying the structure means “somebody with only a tiny amount of economic exposure to the company could control it.”
Asked about Kalish, who has become a vocal critic of Kalshi since leaving, Robins said he no longer controls what his former colleague says. “When he worked for us, I could tell him what to do, and I can’t anymore,” he said, adding that he believes Kalish’s views come from his own experience as a bettor. The CEO said he did not know what the “struggling” characterization rested on beyond the share price.
Fortune’s account cited a quarterly loss of more than $67 million against nearly $158 million in net income a year earlier, revenue down more than 4% despite over $320 million in sales and marketing spend, and a cumulative deficit approaching $6.5 billion. It also noted the company’s own annual filing, warning that competitive pressure threatens its business model.
The wider picture is one that the industry has been arguing about all season. The American Gaming Association forecast $29.5 billion in legal NFL wagering this year, effectively flat against last, and blamed prediction markets for the stall – an argument Draftkings is not straightforwardly party to, having left the association last November over its stance on exactly this product.
