DraftKings' 60% revenue growth falls short on estimates due to unfavorable NFL results

Betting company DraftKings Inc. tightened its forecast for annual revenue after recording a $25 million hit due to payouts following customer-friendly results during the NFL season. Even though the company posted a 60% increase in quarterly revenue on Friday, unfavorable results in some NFL matches during October forced the company to cut the upper end of its fiscal 2021 outlook. 

Revenue for DraftKings rose to $213 million in Q3, a period which ended on September 30. Analysts on average had expected revenue of $236.6 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. 

According to the third-quarter financial report, the company forecast fiscal 2021 revenue between $1.24 billion and $1.28 billion, in contrast to a prior range of $1.21 billion to $1.29 billion. It also foresaw 2022 revenue in a range of $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion, largely in line with market estimates. 

During Q3,  DraftKings’ net loss attributable to common stockholders widened to $545 million, or $1.35 per share, from $395.7 million, or $1.11 per share, a year earlier.

Shares in DraftKings fell up to 11% in premarket trading as the firm’s investments in the launch of its product in Arizona and Wyoming, which also deepened losses for Q3. Analysts have predicted DraftKings and its peers would spend heavily on marketing during the NFL season with the intention of attracting new users in several states with a legalized online sports betting market. 

Jason Robins, DraftKings' co-founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board, spoke in a press release about Q3's report and said: “DraftKings had a strong third quarter that highlights our team’s unique ability to drive engagement with our core customers while simultaneously launching new states and verticals and completing the complex migration to our own in-house technology ahead of schedule. Since migrating, we have rapidly added innovative features and functionality to our top-ranked mobile sports betting app. We are also excited that our new growth initiatives, including DraftKings Marketplace and our content and media business, demonstrated promising early results in the quarter.”

Jason Park, DraftKings’ Chief Financial Officer, added: “Fundamental user acquisition, retention and engagement trends in the third quarter were outstanding across all of our online gaming products. We delivered $213 million in third quarter revenue which represents a 60% year-over-year increase. On a same state basis and taking into consideration lower than expected hold primarily due to NFL game outcomes, third quarter revenue would have been $40 million higher. Our key performance indicators also continued to grow, as Monthly Unique Payers increased by 31% and Average Revenue Per Monthly Unique Payer grew by 38%. We are increasing the midpoint of our 2021 revenue guidance and introducing 2022 revenue guidance which points to another year of strong growth in existing states for DraftKings.”

The online betting space has also seen frenetic dealmaking, with firms looking to expand into Britain and double down in the United States. DraftKings last month walked away from a $22 billion attempt to buy gambling group Entain Plc, without disclosing the reasons why the deal talks finished. DraftKings decided to pass on the takeover proposal despite the UK's takeover regulator having agreed to Entain’s request to extend the deadline for a bid to be presented. 

In addition, the company is looking to close its $1.56 billion acquisition of Golden Nugget Online Gaming Inc. by early 2022, Robins said.

Despite the fact that Q3 did not live up to the analysts expectations, since DraftKings went public in April 2020, its market value tripled to $20 billion. It is now available in more than a dozen U.S. states, having partnered with major professional sports leagues. It has also entered the cryptocurrency and NFTs business, and has expanded its sportsbook and online casino holdings into UK and South Africa.