GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 52 - March 2022

Jason Robins DraftKings CEO WALL OF SHAME 68 Jason Robins image courtesy of TechCrunch Obviously, what the CEO of DraftKings was trying to say is that his company would prefer casual gamblers betting into their numbers. You know, the ones who are not quite as educated. Ignorant, if you will, about how to place a sports bet. Rather, they are there to play for fun. Apparently, what they don’t want is to be taking bets from seasoned gamblers. The ones who know how to study games, look at the odds and make positive EV bets. In the days following his ludicrous statement, Robins was in back-peddle mode, saying he could have chosen his words better and that his statements were – yep, you guessed it – “taken a little out of context.” Sorry, Jason. As the saying goes, the toothpaste was already out of tube. And the damage of insulting millions of your core customers was done. You know, the ones “who aren’t betting for profit.” The major problem here is that even if this is indeed DraftKings’ strategy behind closed doors, why is its CEO and face of the company out there saying it in a public forum? That, my friends, is a question nobody in their right mind has been able to answer. And it’s also why it was an absolute no-brainer for us to pin Robins’ haughty mug on the APCWWall of Shame. Welcome to the club, JR! In December, Jason Robins, CEO and co-founder of DraftKings, made a comment that had many of us in the industry and sports bettors all over the world asking, “What the %!@# did he just say?” While speaking at the Canaccord Genuity 2021 Digital Gaming Virtual Summit, Robins had the gall to actually allow the following words to come out of his mouth: “This is an entertainment activity,” Robins said. “People who are doing this for profit are not the players we want. . . . We want people to win. We just don’t want professionals, which is what any sportsbook would say.” The takeaway? DraftKings, which has risen to become one of the most dominant sportsbook operators in the exploding U.S. sports bettingmarket, does not want players on their site who are betting for profit. You know, players who are actually trying make money. But hold the phone, Jason. Doesn’t everyonewho places a bet have some expectation, or at least a faint hope, of making a profit? Or are we crazy to think that? Are there actually players out there who place bets with the hope of losing theirmoney? G P W A t i m e s . o r g

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDIzMTA=