Interview with Jason Robins, CEO, DraftKings

How much are you looking forward to the progression of the American market in the next few years?

I’m excited, you know everything feels like a whirlwind now, so hard to think too much about a few years out and how you’re going to feel but it’s an exciting time and when I take it for granted things can change but it looks like it’s going to be an exciting time for at least the next few years, so hopefully we’ll see things happen the right way and it will be a great opportunity for everybody.

DraftKings have been leading the way. How important is that for you as a business?

Well us for two reasons, we feel it’s important to be a leader, one is that’s the way that you win, that’s the way that you have the largest customer base, the most market sharers to constantly be two/three steps ahead of everybody else, it builds your brand, it does those things. The second reason is, there’s a lot of how this is going to work, that is yet to be written and if we want to see it done in a way that makes sense, we have to be out ahead leading the charge on that.  it doesn’t mean that we don’t also need the line with other stakeholders, but nothing like waiting for somebody else to tell you what to do to get something you don’t like back, so we think it’s pretty important to take a pro-active approach and be a leader here and so far that’s been well received, so want to continue to do that. 

Why do you think Betting on Sports America is appealing to industry experts?

Well if you have a stake or any sort of interest in the betting in sports industries, really right now, there’s not a better place to go and I think especially in the US, if you’re involved in sports at all, in any way, it doesn’t matter if it has nothing to do with betting, what’s happening in bettering is going to affect you.  So that’s why you see the leagues here, that’s why you see media companies here and it’s going to be even more so in April when it’s in the US.

How important are conferences for the betting industry particularly at the moment?

I think it’s absolutely a critical thing right now, because right now there’s a lot of lack of education in the US in particular.  I know over here in the UK it’s a lot more mature market and people are a bit more sophisticated, but education is absolutely critical right now as the laws are being made and as the policies are being forth and it’s surprising how much people don’t know and I think that they’re open to learning though, so conferences like these I just met a representative from one of the sports leagues.  They’re all paying attention, they’re all coming to learn, and I think that’s really good thing and a critical thing to make sure that regulation happens the right way in the US.

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