Jason Robins most likely wasn’t talking about you. He wants to be very clear about that point.
The DraftKings CEO made waves last week by telling the Canaccord Genuity Digital Gaming Summit his company wasn’t interested in attracting customers who are playing for profit, though even that synopsis doesn’t quite capture his full sentiment.
Here’s exactly what Robins said (h/t Sportshandle):
“Usually, what we see in research is that most players favor one app and direct the vast majority of their game play there. And the ones that don’t are more the ones that you really don’t want, they’re bonus hunters and odds shoppers, and it’s a very small fraction of the audience. It’s less than 10% of the audience. But those are not the most profitable customers for obvious reasons…
“This is an entertainment activity. People who are doing this for profit are not the players we want.”
A loud and online portion of bettors immediately felt attacked because, in their minds, Robins was referring to them. On Wednesday, the CEO clarified that’s simply not the case.
With @DKSportsbook opening up at @FoxwoodsCT today #FollowTheMoney @MitchMossRadio & @paulyhoward caught up with CEO Jason Robins at the grand opening pic.twitter.com/h22N5NXZpI
— VSiN (@VSiNLive) December 8, 2021
At the launch of a new DraftKings Sportsbook in Connecticut, Robins told VSiN Live he wasn’t referring to the average gamblers who place a few bets per week. It’s the bigger fish out there that worry him.
“I think, probably, I could’ve chosen my words better and it was also taken a little out of context,” Robins said. “We don’t want professionals. And by professionals — I think this is very important — we don’t mean people who win. Lots of people win. It’s great when people win. We don’t ban people from winning. What we don’t want are the Billy Walters types who are throwing money on one side to try to manipulate the lines and move them one way and mess around with the ecosystem. That’s not good for anybody.”
Unfortunately for DraftKings, bettors on social media ran with the initial narrative before Robins could clarify. Soon enough, competitors were inviting players to come win with them.
Here at @CircaSports were interested in and appreciate odds shopping bettors and price sensitive customers.
Why?
Because stock price doesn’t matter and we don’t have shareholders to answer to. Long term process/outlook > Short term results/variance. #ForProfitPlayersOnly
— Jeffrey Benson (@JeffreyBenson12) December 2, 2021
Betting is certainly an entertainment industry, but it’s one of the few in the space where consumers have a chance to get their money back and then some. Of course no sportsbook wants players to win all the time. There would never be a reason for them to exist if that were the case.
It’s also worth noting the average bettor probably has a higher view of their impact on a sportsbook than the CEO does. Last year, for example, Robins told The Action Network’s Darren Rovell the median bet in New Jersey was less than $10.
The comments at the Canaccord Summit were bad for mostly public relations reasons. But for the vast majority of players, they’re also pretty much irrelevant.
Gamblers still have plenty to gripe about lately. These comments just aren’t worth getting worked up over.
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