DraftKings CEO Jason Robins stated that the company is "on offense," attributing recent momentum to the World Cup frenzy, increased baseball betting, and a new unified app that offers a sportsbook-like prediction market experience in states without legalized sports betting. He noted that the core business is performing exceptionally well, with significant growth in prediction markets. Robins highlighted that the company emerged from Q2 2026 ahead of projections, adding over 600,000 customers at a lower acquisition cost than its sportsbook operations. He expects this success to continue into the NFL season, with a projection of "millions and millions of customers" engaging with the predictions offering.
The prediction market business has seen remarkable expansion, with annualized total volume increasing nearly fivefold from $2.3 billion in April to $11 billion in July. DraftKings is investing between $200 million and $300 million in Predictions for 2026, with Robins open to further investment if attractive customer acquisition trends persist. He compared the opportunity to entering numerous new sportsbook jurisdictions simultaneously, emphasizing the efficiency in advertising since the product can reach consumers in non-legal states like California and Texas through national campaigns.
Robins also addressed concerns about cannibalization from competitors like Kalshi, stating that internal and third-party data show minimal overlap, with only about a 1% crossover between users of the two apps. He estimated that 80% to 90% of prediction market volume in legal states comes from professional betting syndicates and institutional traders, a segment that would not typically engage with sportsbooks. Despite a 4.6% decline in overall revenue to $1.44 billion and a 62% year-over-year drop in Adjusted EBITDA to $114.6 million in Q2 2026, primarily due to "customer-friendly" sports results and increased acquisition spending, DraftKings maintained its full-year revenue guidance of $6.5 billion to $6.9 billion and Adjusted EBITDA guidance of $700 million to $900 million. The company's customer acquisition grew nearly 75% year-over-year, and while acquisition spending increased by about 10%, the underlying cost per customer was approximately 25% better than expected.
