Tag: Jason Robins

If FanDuel and DraftKings want lower tax rates in New York, they need more than empty threats

The sportsbooks said they could offer worse odds to New York customers if tax rates aren’t reduced.

The greedy overlords of the sports betting industry have descended upon New York, and they’ve decided they want more.

In what was supposed to be a review Tuesday of how things went in the state’s first year of legal betting — and they went quite well — online sports betting behemoths FanDuel and DraftKings argued to the Committee on Racing, Gaming and Wagering that New York’s 51% tax rate on online betting was too high.

New York made more than $709 million in tax revenue on more than $16 billion in wagers through the year ending on Jan. 7, but FanDuel president Christian Genetski and DraftKings CEO Jason Robins argued the state has peaked. If New York doesn’t lower the rate, they said, customers would pay the penalty in the form of worse betting odds and fewer promotions.

“We do not believe that this level of economic success is sustainable with the current tax rate of 51%,” Genetski said, per SBCAmericas. “Although it’s only been one year since the market launched, there are clear signs that the New York market has already peaked, whereas other states remain on a solidly upward trajectory.”

This, of course, is no reason to shed a tear for sportsbook companies that negotiated the 51% tax rate in the first place. The first year was a success, so why would they want to come back to the table for any other reason than to get a larger piece of the pie?

FanDuel recommended a tax reduction to 35%, according to Legal Sports Report, saying a more competitive rate would lead to an estimated $350 million-plus in additional total gross revenue over a three-year period. But the sportsbook couldn’t provide concrete evidence to support the claim.

Thankfully, the NY state legislature doesn’t seem to be falling for the old bait and switch just yet. And without assurances that revenues will increase or stay the same, they shouldn’t.

“There was no sunset, so you knew it was 51% going forward. You negotiated it. You agreed to it,” state senator and committee chairman Joe Addabbo said. “And now we have these numbers, and there’s no real foundation to say these numbers are suffering at this point.”

Including the $200 million in licensing fees New York collected from sports betting, the state has generated a total of more than $909 million in revenue, with the majority supposedly going towards education. If DraftKings and FanDuel want to negotiate a smaller tax rate, they need to show that number won’t shrink. Or bring a better bargaining chip to the table than threats of robbing their own customers.

As New York assemblyman and co-committee chair Gary Pretlow said Tuesday, if they worsen odds, people can simply take their business to another sportsbook. And if they’re all juicing the books, that signals a level of collusion worth getting the attorney general involved.

Hard agree.

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PGA Tour, DraftKings break ground on first-of-its-kind sportsbook at TPC Scottsdale

TPC Scottsdale will soon be home to a 12,000 square foot in-person sportsbook.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Five years ago, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan estimates, he would not have been able to envision opening a sportsbook at the site of one of his tour’s 48 annual tournaments. If he had, though, he would have known where it would be.

“This would have been the location I would have said,” Monahan said, standing at a barren construction site at the corner of Hayden Loop and Bell Road in Scottsdale. For years, this plot of land has served as the entrance to TPC Scottsdale, home of the WM Phoenix Open. In the fall of 2023, it will become home to a 12,000 square foot in-person sportsbook. On Monday, Monahan was on hand for the groundbreaking ceremony.

“We know this will elevate the peoples’ open to a new level,” Monahan said, moments after a ceremonial photo op with DraftKings CEO Jason Robins and Scottsdale mayor David Ortega.

The sportsbook, which DraftKings estimates will provide 100 to 120 jobs, will be the first at a PGA Tour site.

TPC Scottsdale DraftKings
A rendering of the new TPC Scottsdale DraftKings sportsbook. (Photo: PGA Tour)

On the surface, it seems like an unusual arrangement. Since sports betting began to be legalized in states across the country in 2018, companies like DraftKings and FanDuel have exploded in popularity due to the ease of access — bettors can place wagers at home, on mobile apps, in seconds. Arizona is among states that legalized the form of sports betting and also allows opening sports books at established sports venues. Since then, sports books have opened at Footprint Center, home of the Phoenix Suns, and adjacent to Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

At the Phoenix Open, fans can bet on their phones while watching action, standing in line for beer or going to the bathroom. The notion that they will seek out an in-person sportsbook is antithetical to that accessibility. With this location, DraftKings is betting on a different type of consumer.

“When you think about the experience of going in a venue and everybody’s cheering and watching on screens and you’re betting while watching, it’s an amazing experience,” DraftKings chief business officer Ezra Kucharz said. “With a company like ours, you can choose to have an experience where you sit on your couch on your phone or you can come to a venue where there’s a lot more people and you can feed off the energy. … That’s why we do these things.”

Robins added that a brick-and-mortar location could be more appealing to tourists from locations where sports betting is not legal and who may not have the app on their phones.

For the PGA Tour and the city of Scottsdale, the bet is more certain. Regardless of the location’s success, they will receive money from DraftKings as part of the arrangement.

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Already, though, the PGA Tour has benefited massively from the sports betting boom.

“When you look at legalized sports betting, we’re seeing more engagement (in legal markets),” Monahan said. “So when we look at our network broadcasts, our cable broadcasts, our social media platforms. The amount of time that people are spending researching play, researching what’s happening what’s happening in the field of play, researching historical data. There’s a level of intelligence that’s coming into our sport, a level of understanding that’s probably far greater now than it was five years ago.”

The catch, of course, is in the PGA Tour’s ultimate contradiction. As he stood in a makeshift gazebo plastered with DraftKings’ logo, chatting with the company’s top executives, Monahan was asked whether PGA Tour players, caddies and executives are allowed to have the DraftKings’ app on their phones. His answer was as brief as it was obvious: “No.”

The freight train that is sport betting, though, isn’t stopping anytime soon. Although he said the PGA Tour doesn’t have explicit plans for another brick-and-mortar sportsbook at one of its courses, Monahan added that he thinks the TPC Scottsdale location could provide a blueprint for replicas elsewhere.

“We’ll take the findings here and as opportunities present themselves, we’ll consider them,” Monahan said. “But this is unique. TPC Scottsdale, the WM Phoenix Open, this is not just unique in golf, it’s unique in all of sports. That’s what makes this the perfect opportunity for the first one.”

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The incredible story of how DraftKings CEO’s mistaken burner led to the building of a school in Pakistan

Jason Robins’ supposed Twitter burner led to a $100,000 donation.

Those deeply embedded in the sports betting community remember the story of DraftKings CEO Jason Robins’ burner Twitter account that wasn’t. But wait until you hear the heartwarming conclusion of that story.

Last November, the Twitter account of DraftKings retail investor Mohsin Gazipura was mistaken for a Robins burner account due to his tweets in staunch defense of the DK boss, among other evidence. One pusher of that narrative was former PointsBet oddsmaker AFrantzie.

SportsHandle reporter Jeff Edelstein uncovered the truth, that Gazipura’s Twitter wasn’t a Robins burner, but the open-ended headline — “Does DraftKings CEO Jason Robins Have A Twitter Burner Account?” — caused Robins to confront him. Once Robins was made aware that the story was less salacious than the headline, he donated $100,000 to Gazipura’s organization, Charity Grocer, which helps deliver groceries to people in far-reaching areas of Pakistan.

“It’s insane,” Gazipura told Edelstein. “The truth is I just started this charity with me, and I have some family back in Pakistan, so I have three or four people there, and I think we’ve gotten about $30,000 in donations over the past two or three years. We’re a fairly small charity, but just thinking about what this is going to do for a country that’s struggling, for a country that doesn’t have access to vaccines, doesn’t have access to clean water.”

Because the money was much more than Gazipura could use for groceries, he used it to team up with Paani Project to build a school. The Aisha Academy officially opened Monday, in less than 10 months.

“We’re in northern Pakistan, very close to the border, and women’s education is not something readily available under the Taliban,” Gazipura said. “We didn’t even break ground until we got approval from the government of Pakistan.”

The school also plans to open in the evenings for older, uneducated women to take classes. For his part, Frantz added another $1,000 donation.

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DraftKings CEO says lawmakers should legalize online gaming before ‘prolonged economic downturn’

Tell us how you really feel, Jason

DraftKings CEO Jason Robins has never been the most deft public speaker.

Foregoing the platitudes most executives tend to live by, Robins instead makes the type of comments board members typically don’t want their consumers to hear.

For instance there was the time last December when Robins said DraftKings didn’t want customers who are looking to profit from the book’s offerings. Well, he outdid himself on Friday at the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States conference in Boston.

In explaining why more states should rush to legalize mobile betting, Robins cited a likely economic downturn in the near future. And he phrased in the most craven way possible.

On the one hand, at least he’s not even pretending like rapid expansion, growth and profits aren’t his main objective. On the other, ew, gross.

The idea that ‘times will be getting tougher soon, so let’s get people to spend their disposable income with us’ is hard to look past in this phrasing. Maybe we’ll get some more context and clarification soon. It sure would be helpful.

Until then, remember to play responsibly.

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DraftKings CEO clarifies comments about not wanting bettors who win big

Jason Robins didn’t mean it like that.

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. 

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.

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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