DraftKings on Thursday posted quarterly results that missed Wall Street estimates on the top and bottom line, but it increased its revenue by 44%.
DraftKings CEO Jason Robins told CNBC on Friday that the quarter took a hit from unfavorable outcomes from the NFL games.
“We had the worst two-week run of NFL outcomes we’ve had since we’ve been a public company,” Robins said. “The nature of the business when you’re taking risks on sports outcomes, you’re going to have customer friendly outcomes and it always kind of swings back over time.”
Despite those challenges, Robins highlighted the company’s customer experience “strongly outperformed expectations.”
The company is increasing its fiscal year 2024 guidance to between $410 million and $510 million compared to its prior guidance of between $350 million and $450 million.
“We just had a few bad sports outcomes, but that’ll happen.” Robins said. “That was really what gave us the confidence to make a 15% increase in our bottom line guide for this year.”
The company’s guidance excludes the estimated impact related to plans to acquire lottery app Jackpocket for approximately $750 million, announced after the bell Thursday.
“Jackpocket is a very unique asset,” Robins said. “It’s in the lottery industry, which is one of the oldest forms of gaming in the U.S. and has a massive addressable audience with lots of customers.”
Here’s how DraftKings performed in the fourth quarter, compared with what Wall Street was expecting, according to analyst estimates compiled by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv:
- Loss per share: 10 cents vs. expected profit of 8 cents
- Revenue:Â $1.23 billion vs. $1.24 billion expected
The sports betting company saw a 44% increase in revenue year-over-year.
For the last three months of 2023, DraftKings reported a net loss of $44.6 million compared with $242.7 million in the same period a year earlier. Losses per share improved to a loss of 10 cents versus a loss of 53 cents in 2022.
After adjusting for one-time items, largely related to stock-based compensation, DraftKings reported a profit of 29 cents per share.
DraftKings garnered 3.5 million average “monthly unique payers,” a 37% increase from the same period in 2022. The company’s average revenue per MUP saw a 6% boost in the fourth quarter compared to the previous year.
DraftKings recently launched its Sportsbook product in Maine and Vermont, bringing it to a total of 24 states allowing its mobile sports betting.
This story originally appeared on CNBC
