CNBC’s Contessa Brewer interviews DraftKings CEO Jason Robins from the Bank of America Gaming and Lodging Conference about the kickoff to the NFL season, growing customers and growing the overall betting pool.

DraftKings CEO Jason Robins described the start of the NFL season as the company's second biggest period of the year, just behind the Super Bowl, for acquiring and engaging customers. Robins reported record numbers in customer sign-ups and engagement, with growth coming from both new and established states. He noted a significant increase in player prop and parlay bets, particularly in professional sports, reflecting changing fan interests.

Robins also addressed the competitive landscape, including the rise of prediction markets and unregulated platforms, and emphasized the importance of regulatory compliance. He stated that DraftKings has not observed any slowdown in consumer spending on gaming, with most users placing small bets, suggesting resilience even amid broader economic uncertainty.

DraftKings CEO Jason Robins on sports betting's biggest season

NFL kickoff, and this is a huge opportunity for the nation's sportsbooks in terms of winning new customers and growing the wagering pool. We're at the Bank of America Gaming and Lodging Conference in New York City, and with me is DraftKings CEO Jason Robbins. Give me a sense of how big an opportunity it is when we start seeing pro football and college football, for that matter, kicking off again. Well, this is the biggest time of year for us, as you said, for acquiring customers, engaging our customers, growing, and so it's really important, really, it's where the excitement is in sports. It's almost as big as the Super Bowl, not quite, but the start of NFL season is really second to the Super Bowl, the biggest time of the year for us. Can you give us some insight into what you're seeing even in the lead-up to kickoff? What have you seen about new customers signing up or returning customers and the amount that they're engaging with your platform? Well, I love, this is my favorite time to load up the stats every morning, because the numbers just keep going up right into kickoff, and it'll continue through Sunday, so we're seeing big numbers, record numbers, and we're really excited about what we're going to see for the start of the season. Where are those new customers coming from? It's really a mix of everywhere. Obviously, there's been a lot of states that have been around a while, but even the oldest states are still, lots of new customers are signing up from New Jersey, for example, and states that have been live for many, many years, so it's really, I think, just overall growth of the industry. We're launching Missouri later this year, which I'm very excited about, but that won't be until later, so we haven't had any new states this year. It's really just across the board. And then, as the product has matured, and you've brought a lot of your tech back in-house and sort of redesigned the way that the product looks for consumers, what's been the biggest surprise to you about how fans engage with the app and the products that you're offering? Well, I don't know, surprise that it happened, but to the degree is the growth of the player props and the amount of interest there is on the players, which is also leading to a lot more parlay bets, because people like to combine the player bets with the game bets, so that's been a huge thing. Especially in NFL and NBA, in particular, baseball, it's big. Not as big in college, because there's so many new players every year, I don't think people get familiar with the stars as much. And also, there's been some, NCAA, they sort of tend to frown a little bit more on the player props. Maybe, but I don't know if that's really, I think it's just more that there's new players every year, so people don't know them, they have more of a, they identify with the teams more, whereas I think there's a shift happening in professional sports, where yes, people still have their favorite teams, but it's becoming a lot more about who my favorite player is, and they'll switch team allegiance if their favorite player goes somewhere else. Interesting. Okay, so when you're looking at the competition, we've talked a lot about offshore, unlicensed sports books being competition. We've talked about the threat of sweeps and the way that it allows underage players on the platforms, but predictions markets are grabbing so many headlines. We just talked to Underdog's CEO this week, when they announced a partnership with Crypto.com on sports predictions. It's not settled, but you've told me you're interested. Are you in talks to acquire Railbird? Well, we can't talk about any specific discussions, but obviously we're keeping an eye on the prediction markets, and it's something that we're monitoring. We're regulated in a lot of states, and some states have taken a very adversarial position, so we have to obviously be careful and engage with the regulators. To be clearer, does that mean you don't want to do anything that infuriates regulators where you're already operating as a sports book? No, I mean, we have very large business that we need to make sure we protect, so I don't think that that's in anybody's interest. So we have to figure out if there's an opportunity for us to do it without putting our existing business in harm's way. Given the caution that you're approaching it, do you see Underdog, PolyMarket, Calshi as competition? Is it something that concerns you, that you will suddenly see market share gobbled up, Do you think that it mostly will affect the players, the fans, in states that don't have access to legal sports betting? I think it's more that. I mean, that's where the volume is coming from. Obviously, there's an element, too, of with somebody like an underdog, they're not regulated in all these states. I think they have one or two licenses, but they do have one or two licenses, so it'll be interesting to see how that unfolds. And so it's kind of, I think, in some ways good for us that there are a couple others that are jumping in, and that'll let us know, kind of a canary in the coal mine type of situation. But we have to obviously make sure that we are being careful, because we have a very large profitable business that we need to protect. And I do think it's a big opportunity, and I do think it's mostly in states that don't have legal betting. So that could be something that we would be able to pursue. Last question on the macro level. We're looking at, and a lot of investors are looking for any signs that the health of the American consumer is cracking. You know, we've seen some budget travel slowdown and international travel incoming. When you're looking at U.S. consumers and their discretionary dollars, are they still willing to spend on gaming? I mean, we're seeing nothing to suggest that there's any slowdown in the numbers for our business right now. Everything is going up. And, you know, most people are not betting large amounts. So if you think about where am I going to cut back, not going out to dinner one night, not going on a trip, you're going to save a lot more money than not betting $5 on the NFL game this weekend. And vast majority of people are making pretty small bets. So it's something that I think will hold up quite well, even if the economy doesn't end up doing so well. Happy NFL kickoff. Thank you. Thank you for being here.

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