DraftKings Seeking NJ Casino Partners for Legal Sports Betting

DraftKings has made no secret about its intentions to move in on the sports betting market as soon as legally possible. Last month, DraftKings hired a “head of sportsbook” to lead the company in its pursuit of legal sports betting in the United States. DraftKings has also recently opened an office in Hoboken, New Jersey – not far from the casinos of Atlantic City.

Even more recently, DraftKings has confirmed that it has been in contact with “potential land-based casino partners” in Atlantic City. The nature of those discussions remains unclear, but DraftKings has repeatedly made clear its desire to tap into the sports betting market if the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) is overturned by the Supreme Court or repealed by Congress.

In a statement, DraftKings said this:

“DraftKings, with the world’s most popular daily fantasy sports platform and nearly 10 million sports-mad customers, is perfectly positioned to succeed in a legal sports betting market. In preparation for the possibility of sports wagering in New Jersey, DraftKings has naturally had discussions with potential land-based casino partners, as required under the state’s online gaming regulations. We do not have any announcements at this time, and our focus continues to be on creating great sports entertainment experiences for the millions of customers who currently use DraftKings.”

DraftKings Well-Positioned to Enter Sports Betting Market

Although this statement doesn’t reveal much more beyond confirming reports that DraftKings has been in contact with New Jersey casinos, there are a couple of things to take from it.

First, it is becoming increasingly obvious that DraftKings is confident in the potential of sports betting. DraftKings should be a natural fit for the market anyways. Some of the advantages DraftKings has should it enter the sports betting market include:

• A large customer base that is comfortable risking money on sports contests
• A presence in almost every state of the Union / nationwide brand recognition
• Experience marketing to sports fans
• Experience making deals with sports leagues
• The infrastructure and technical know-how to deal with online sports betting
• Experience managing massive amounts of sports data and statistics

DraftKings has also been experimenting with adding live streaming sports feeds to it service. Back in November, DraftKings announced that it had made a deal with EuroLeague Basketball allowing customers to certain games live on the platform. Live streaming is something European bookmakers have been doing for several years now to support the highly popular live betting concept that allows customers to place short-term bets during games.

The second thing to take away from the statement is DraftKings’ assurance it will not be giving up on its daily fantasy customers any time soon. DraftKings CEO Jason Robins reiterated in an interview earlier this year that the company has no plans to abandon the daily fantasy side of the business.

Robins said at the time, “I don’t think you have to make that trade-off. If you feel there is a big market, which we obviously do, you have to go for both of those. There’s no reason why people can’t play both [….] They’re both very important products for us to focus on.”