DraftKings Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 4, 2023

There are 15 speakers on the call.

Operator

Day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the DraftKings Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question and answer session. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

Operator

And I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Stanton Dodge, Chief Legal Officer. Sir, please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. Certain statements we make during this call may constitute forward looking statements that are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors As discussed further in our SEC filings that could cause our actual results to differ materially from our historical results or from our forecasts. We assume no responsibility to update forward looking statements other than as required by law. During this call, Management will also discuss certain non GAAP financial measures that we believe may be useful in evaluating DraftKings operating performance. These measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for DraftKings' financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Speaker 1

Reconciliations of these non GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are available in our earnings presentation, which can be found on our website and in our quarterly report on Form 10 Q filed with the SEC. Hosting the call today, we have Jason Robbins, Co Founder and Chief Executive Officer of DraftKings, who will share some opening remarks and an update on our business and Jason Park, Chief Financial Officer of DraftKings will provide a review of our financials, and we will then open the line to questions. I will now turn the call over to Jason Robinson.

Speaker 2

Good morning and thank you all for joining. I'm excited to be with you today to talk about our outstanding Q2 and significantly improved outlook for fiscal year 2023. Revenue and adjusted EBITDA exceeded expectations in the Q2. And importantly, we generated significant positive adjusted EBITDA. 2nd quarter revenue increased 88% year over year to $875,000,000 Our revenue growth trajectory has been very strong due to our continued focus enhancing our products and improving our customer experience, which is driving excellent retention and rapidly improving monetization.

Speaker 2

At the same time, we remain relentlessly focused on efficiency and our mantra of revenue growth and cost efficiency is now a core tenant of the organization. As a result of our strong revenue growth and ongoing efforts to capture efficiencies, we delivered $73,000,000 of positive adjusted EBITDA in the 2nd quarter. We are increasing our full year revenue guidance to a range of $3,460,000,000 to $3,540,000,000 implying growth of 56% year over year at the midpoint. Our fiscal year 2023 revenue guidance includes our expectation of nearly $1,200,000,000 of revenue in the 4th We are also improving our full year adjusted EBITDA guidance to a range of negative $190,000,000 to negative $220,000,000 an improvement of 35% at the midpoint versus our May full year guidance. Our fiscal year 2023 adjusted EBITDA guidance Our expectation of $150,000,000 to $175,000,000 of adjusted EBITDA in the Q4 of this year.

Speaker 2

Turning to our OSB product. We have continued to focus on powering our own same game parlays and differentiating our live betting content. We now have live same game parlays built in house for most of the major sports, including NFL, NBA, MLB, college football and college basketball, and added to our live markets for golf, tennis and MLB. We are improving our product at a very fast velocity with very high quality. In iGaming, we're executing our 2 brand strategy while focusing on differentiating through more in house content, including live dealer and jackpot offerings.

Speaker 2

Our persistent focus on product differentiation is already apparent in share trends. In the states where we are currently live, we achieved OSB handle share of 35% And OSB GGR share of 32% in the quarter, which were the highest they have been since the COVID impacted Q2 of 2020. We also maintain number 1 iGaming GGR position and set an all time record for our iGaming GGR share of 27%. Looking ahead, we are very excited for football season. Our entire organization is dialed in and ready for the start of NFL and NCAA Football.

Speaker 2

I am proud of the team and the culture we have put in place. In particular, I am proud of our team for their relentless focus on efficiency and expense management over the past 12 months. Our work of achieving Ann's is not done, and we feel great about the trajectory of the business. With that, I will turn it over to Jason Park.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Jason. I'll hit on the highlights, including our Q2 performance and our improved 2023 guidance. Please note that all income statement measures discussed except for revenue are on a non GAAP adjusted EBITDA basis. As Jason mentioned, the organization is Very well and that is showing up in our results. We achieved $875,000,000 of revenue in the quarter, which is 88% higher than our 2nd quarter 2022 revenue and our adjusted EBITDA of positive $73,000,000 significantly outperformed our expectations and improved by nearly $200,000,000 on a year over year basis.

Speaker 3

Customer retention and engagement outperformed expectations As we successfully transition customers from the NBA season into MLB, we have seen significantly better than expected engagement on MLB due to our enhanced product. Structural Hold was also above expectations at approximately 9% for the quarter, while promotional intensity improved, together supporting a more than 550 basis point year over year improvement in our adjusted gross margin rate to 47%. Fixed expenses were slightly better than expected as we managed vendor related costs and exerted discipline on our compensation expenses. We were particularly pleased with the results in our more mature online sports book and iGaming series. In our states that launched from 2018 through 2021, Combined handle growth accelerated quarter over quarter and increased more than 35% compared to the same period in 2022.

Speaker 3

In these states, revenue increased more than 70% year over year, adjusted gross margin rate increased more than 800 basis points And external marketing declined more than 10%, while total unique customers increased approximately 25%. These strong results and our visibility into continued improvement have enabled us to raise our full year 2023 revenue guidance range to $3,460,000,000 to $3,540,000,000 from $3,135,000,000 to $3,235,000,000 or by $315,000,000 at the midpoint. We are also improving our full year 2023 adjusted EBITDA guidance range to negative $190,000,000 to negative $220,000,000 from negative $290,000,000 to negative $340,000,000 or by $110,000,000 at the midpoint. The bridge from our May full year 2023 guidance to our current full year 2023 guidance includes increases due to stronger customer retention acquisition and engagement, Structural sports book hold improvement and favorable sport outcomes in the 2nd quarter, these items are partially offset by Kentucky now launching this year and being included in our forecast And Ohio's tax rate increasing effective July 1st. Customer retention, acquisition and engagement are exceeding expectations and account for 2 $25,000,000 of the revenue improvement and $100,000,000 of the adjusted EBITDA improvement.

Speaker 3

Our structural sports book hold percentage forecast is also higher, Supported by our introduction of in house in game parlay capabilities and new live betting markets. This trend accounts for $40,000,000 of the revenue improvement and $30,000,000 of the adjusted EBITDA improvement. Favorable sport outcomes in the 2nd quarter contribute $30,000,000 to the revenue improvement and $20,000,000 We are very excited that Kentucky's horse racing commission recently set a target launch date of September 28, 2023 for online sports betting, which is sooner than we previously anticipated. As a result, we expect $20,000,000 of additional revenue in 2023 and a headwind of $30,000,000 to 2023 adjusted EBITDA. Last, we expect Ohio's increased tax rate from 10% to 20%, which went into effect July 1st to result in $10,000,000 of additional costs this year.

Speaker 3

In terms of our full year 2023 adjusted gross margin percentage, we now expect to be in the 43% to 45% range, an improvement from Our previous guidance of 42% to 45%. We expect contribution profit, which we define as adjusted gross profit less external marketing to grow to approximately $700,000,000 in fiscal year 2023, which includes our investment into Kentucky. With regard to our balance sheet, we ended the 2nd quarter with $1,100,000,000 of cash and now plan to end the year with more than 1,000,000,000 As a reminder, we expect approximately $120,000,000 of capital expenditures and capitalized software development costs for fiscal year 2023 and change in net working capital to be slightly positive for the year. In sum, we had a strong second quarter and are very excited for the upcoming football season. That concludes our remarks.

Speaker 3

We will now open the line for questions.

Operator

Thank One moment please for our first question. Our first question will come from Shaun Kelley of Bank of America. Your line is open.

Speaker 4

Hi, good morning everyone and thank you for taking my questions. Jason or Jason, maybe just to start off, obviously dramatic market And I think a lot of this comes back to just truly core product improvement. So I was wondering if you could give us just a little bit of color on what you think the big Success stories have been over the last 3, 6, 9 months on the product side. And then maybe to put it in quantification terms, What would it take to narrow the gap between your OSB handle share that you outlined at 35% and the OSB GGR share at 32%, is that a realistic goal?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Sean. So first on the question around product, it's been a lot of things. I think It's a very complicated product and there's a lot of things that can create customer friction, if you're not careful. And, I think really a big focus for us over the last year and a half has been removing customer friction throughout the journeys. So that's been a big deal.

Speaker 2

We've obviously greatly enhanced our same game parlay offering. That's been a huge part of the story over the last 6 to 8 months. And I think our live betting options have gotten better as well. I can objectively say, I think, in H2, we feel we're going to have the best product in the market. So Really excited about that and I think that's the big difference maker as you noted.

Speaker 2

As far as hold rate goes, we're continually working to improve that. We've obviously closed the gap Quite a bit between handle share and GGR share, and I have no reason to believe that we can't continue to do that.

Speaker 4

Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. One moment please for our next question. Our next question will come from Stephen Grambling of Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Speaker 5

Hey, thanks for taking the questions. I'm going to change over to marketing and cost. It looks like in the back half, the assumption is for Effectively, I think very much lower growth. So it seems like you're continuing to be focused on reducing costs. Are there still big contracts out that could be up for renegotiation or that, we could be considering as we look into the second half or into next year as we look at the guidance or beyond?

Speaker 2

Yes, it's a good question. I mean, we always are reevaluating Every time we have a deal come up, whether it makes sense to continue and at what price. And that's a continual thing. So we're going to continue just Over the course of our lifetime to see optimization there. I think same thing across the board with marketing, with promotion.

Speaker 2

And I do think there's Opportunity also if we can gain more market share to generate better top line as well. So those are really the core areas of focus for the company. I think on the corporate cost side, we really there's probably a little bit here and there. We've really spent so much effort on that for the last year and a half or so that I think the low hanging I do think there's some room to optimize some of the levers that I mentioned.

Speaker 5

But as a quick clarification, are any of

Speaker 2

No, we don't have any cost reductions embedded in the guidance from any of that. Great. We certainly, as I mentioned, always look at when things come up, but we're at this point not building any favorable renegotiations into Thanks. And Stephen, as you know, Our approach to guidance in general has been we're going to bake what we know. If we have lots of things that we're working Some of them may come through, some of them may not.

Speaker 2

So we don't kind of forecast like a probability adjusted number. We really bake what we know. And then we look at anything like you're describing as well as potentially any additional market share gains or anything else that might drive top line. We look at that as upside.

Speaker 3

I would add, Stephen, that these types of team and league deals are a much smaller of our total marketing expense than some of the other operators in the industry. And as a general philosophy, We have implemented more short duration deals to give us a chance to evaluate actual performance, more frequently.

Operator

Thank you. One moment please for our next question. Our next question will come from David Katz of Jefferies. Your line is open.

Speaker 5

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. So in the Comments you talked about backward looking friction removal as a product focus. Can you just talk a bit more about how that focus Looks going forward and what the to do list is, to sort of keep your product on a winning track.

Speaker 2

It's a great question. I mean, I think that this is an area that there's still a lot left to It's true of any product in the digital space that there's always going to be room to optimize your funnels and improve the experience, but particularly in regulated gaming where there's a lot of requirements that you have to follow and there's a lot of states that launch very quickly. The focus for us has been on how do we get live and make sure that we're complying with all relevant laws and regulations. I think as you then kind of say, okay, let's take a look at Along the way, what has that done, that might have created bad experiences for customers, Flags that go off that were misfires or things that were actually correct, but don't really properly give the customer a path to resolving them. Even just better explanation, I think there's so much there.

Speaker 2

And for us, it's really about the customer We look at the product and we say, if you're a customer, what elements of it would be frustrating? What elements of it would make you feel like I'm just going to go try somewhere else? And we try to improve that the best we can, obviously making sure that we continue to follow all compliant, stay compliant with all regulations and laws in every But I think there's a lot there and this will continually be because of this sort of nature of the regulated gaming And I think particularly now given how many states launched and how quickly, there's just a lot of low hanging fruits still available on that front.

Speaker 5

Understood. And as My follow-up, I do have to ask, periodically, there's a lot of discussion and I think it's been obviously ramping up M and A. What are the boundaries and what thoughts might you be able to share in terms of what you might want for or need To keep the momentum going.

Speaker 2

I know there's a lot of chatter about M and A. At this point, We're about I mean, we had a great quarter. We're really excited about that. But we're kind of on to this quarter. It's About to be the most important time of year seasonally for us.

Speaker 2

We have fall coming up with the NFL and college football calendar, NBA, Lots of things happening this fall. So this is the most important time of year. This is when we acquire the most customers, when we have the biggest opportunity to gain more market Share to where we generate the most revenue and we'll generate the most EBITDA. I think this is so important, a moment for DraftKings that we have team laser focused on Executing and everybody's really dialed in now. We have a lot of exciting stuff coming for NFL and college football and basketball and hockey and Everything else and, we're pretty excited about that.

Speaker 2

And listen, there's always talk of things happening in the background and we have Small teams that make sure they're aware of what's going on. But as a company, we're very, very focused on executing winning in the U. S.

Speaker 5

Perfect. Thank you very much. Good luck.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Once again, one moment for our next question. Our next question will come from Robin Farley of UBS. Your line is open.

Speaker 6

Great. Thanks. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the percent of players that migrate from The OSB side, the iGaming side and how that's kind of changed from before Golden Nugget till now?

Speaker 2

Hi, Robin. Thank you. So it's been pretty consistent actually around 50% in states that have both products tend to crossover. That hasn't really changed with Golden Nugget because Golden Nugget is such a smaller piece of the pie. It's Less than 5% of our revenue.

Speaker 2

So it hasn't really moved the overall needle. We do see Golden Nugget is certainly more dominant casino brand. So the crossover is A little bit less there, but it doesn't really move the needle on the overall business. The overall business has stayed pretty consistent in the 50 ish percent range.

Speaker 6

Okay. And do you expect that to change when you talk about migrating in the next couple of months to, the DraftKings Tech Stack or not necessarily, it sounds like?

Speaker 2

I don't think so, at least not in the short term because it's such a small piece of the revenue. But Certainly, we hope that that's a brand that grows and becomes bigger and bigger and it could potentially impact long term. But I don't think we expect an immediate change when we migrate. I think if anything, the focus will be on continuing to build out the casino audience and the CRM and cross sell multi brand strategy within casino. But as time goes on, I think We'll have to see how the brand is growing and developing and if it can become more of a sports brand than it is today.

Speaker 2

But I think As of now, we think of it as more of a casino brand.

Speaker 6

Okay, great. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. And one moment for our next question. Our next question will come from Joe Stauff of SIG. Your line is open.

Speaker 7

Thank you. Good morning, guys. I was curious, I guess, just in terms of understanding maybe the speed of adoption, You know, if especially looking at newer states, you know, you've reached about 7% adult penetration of the adults in the new estates. And I'm wondering how you think about maybe that continuum in terms of The level of penetration that you have in some of your older states, call it New Jersey or whatever. And then the second question I had was, Whether it be the number or the percentage of jurisdictions you operate in that are now contribution positive.

Speaker 2

Hello?

Operator

Pardon me?

Speaker 2

Hi. Yes, we are back.

Speaker 7

All right. I'll ask the questions, I guess. Again, I was curious about the speed of adoption, Especially as we think about maybe the newest states, you've reached about 7% penetration there. And just wondering how quickly now Do we think about that continuum reaching penetration of some of your oldest states, whether it be New Jersey or so? And then the second question was really about the percentage or the number of jurisdictions

Speaker 5

Hello, we're back.

Speaker 2

Back again? Yes, this should be hopefully better. So you're asking about the penetration of new states being fast. Apologize, I missed the last part of the question.

Speaker 7

Yes, no problem. Just trying to understand the newest states, right? You've reached about 7% penetration So, in the newest states and wondering how quickly you think that adoption rate We'll get to levels in those newer states that you have in New Jersey or so.

Speaker 2

It's hard to say. I mean, it's still very new. I think we're continuing to see good acquisition in those new states and then We're going to know a lot more in a couple of months after NFL starts. This will be the first time, for example, in That there's NFL betting available online. So one would expect you'll see another wave of customer acquisition, but we'll know more how things are tracking in the next And

Speaker 3

I'd add Joe, in our older vintage seats, we continue to Really healthy acquisition. We're obviously bringing marketing spend down in those order states to match the level of acquisition and achieve appropriate tax. But we haven't really found a ceiling in even our oldest our most mature states.

Speaker 7

Interesting. And one follow-up, if I could. Are you willing to maybe share with us maybe the percentage of jurisdictions or the number Were your contribution positive?

Speaker 2

Yes. We'll definitely be talking more about that This fall on our Q4 earnings call and at the excuse me, Q3 earnings call in November and on our in our Investor Day.

Speaker 5

So I

Speaker 2

don't want to front run the team on that one, but we have lots of people in the event.

Speaker 7

Okay. Thank you, guys.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. One moment please for our next question. Our next question will come from Dan Politzer of Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

Speaker 8

Hey, good morning, everyone. First one specific question and then maybe one more high level. Just in terms

Speaker 2

of the quarter Hold, you

Speaker 8

said it was 10%. I think adjusting for the favorable SWORD outcomes around 9%. Can you maybe give us just some more detail there in terms Parley mix and leg count. And then in terms of how you're thinking about this over time, I think your largest competitor has called out a goal of 12%. So it feels like you're closing that gap pretty quickly.

Speaker 8

How do you think about this evolving over time? And maybe any guideposts for how you think about this year versus next year?

Speaker 2

Yes. It's a great question on sealing. I think we're still trying to figure out what we think the right level and appropriate level to get to is and We'll continue to follow the data. I don't feel like we have enough yet to say that we have a long term target there other than I think there's still room to increase. And We thus far have seen really no material impact to handle, so definitely room to go up.

Speaker 2

And parlay mix was actually right on expectation for us this quarter. There's definitely some upside, I think, in average like count with The rollout of our new bet split that will be powered by our in house SGP models. I think that will improve the, leg adding experience in the UI and that should hopefully increase average life count this fall. But as far as Q2 goes, we were really at where we

Operator

One moment, please. Speakers, are you able to hear us?

Speaker 2

Yes. Yes. Could I just squeeze in one more for my follow-up?

Operator

Actually, one moment please, sir. Mr. Robbins, Mr. Parks, are you able to hear us? Just one moment, we're just having a technical difficulty.

Operator

Please stay on your lines. And pardon me, Mr. Robbins, Mr. Park, are you able to hear us? Mr.

Operator

Park, Mr. Robbins?

Speaker 2

Yes, here. Sorry.

Operator

Yes, okay. Thank you.

Speaker 8

Can I just squeeze in one quick follow-up? Yes, sure. Okay. Yes, just looking out to the next few years, maybe more long term, as you think about seasonality Do you envision a scenario where

Speaker 2

you could be EBITDA positive in all four quarters?

Speaker 8

Or are you going to always kind of have this big jump Just given the start of sports season and then maybe the shoulder season.

Speaker 2

Oh, no. We definitely expect that as the business inflects towards more Permanent profitability

Operator

date. One moment, please. Speakers will be back on in a moment.

Speaker 2

Hello?

Operator

Yes. Speakers may be able to hear you.

Speaker 2

I apologize. I don't know if there's a technical issue on the Service providers end, but we've tried several different phones here. I apologize to those listening to the call.

Speaker 8

Go ahead, please. Thanks. That's all for me. Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. One moment please for our next question. Our next question will come from Carlo Santarelli of Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

Speaker 2

Hey, guys.

Speaker 9

Good morning. You guys previously, I believe it was back in March of 2022, More or less articulated a longer term goal with sales and marketing representing about 10% of revenue and promotions Sorry, 10% of net revenue and promotions, about 22% of gross revenue. Given the experience over kind of the last Several quarters of reducing promotions, seeing how the customer reacted, as well as the experience you've had in your vintage states Taking out some of the external marketing. Are those targets still kind of where you're thinking? And Do you have any sense around the timeline of when you think you can get to those levels?

Operator

Speakers, are you there? Mr. Santana,

Speaker 2

if you

Operator

could please repeat your question?

Speaker 2

Yes. Is there a way to fix this Ishu, it doesn't seem to be on our end.

Operator

Hold on one moment, please.

Speaker 2

Should we join as a participant?

Operator

Ashley, is it possible that you can If you can call in on a different line, let me give you one moment. I'm going to pause the call and I will and we'll work something out. Everyone, we ask you to please stay on your lines. We'll be resuming the conference shortly. And pardon me, we do apologize.

Operator

I'm afraid that We do have the what has happened? We do have the speakers back. And one moment, Mr. Carlo Santarelli, I'm going to place you back in so you may ask your questions. One moment, please.

Operator

Carlo Santarelli, are you able to hear us?

Speaker 9

I could hear you. Yes, thanks.

Operator

Welcome. If you could please repeat your questions.

Speaker 9

Is the management team there?

Speaker 2

Yes, we're

Speaker 9

here. Oh, hey, guys. While you guys were gone, I just gave guidance for 24 to the rest of the folks

Speaker 2

on the call.

Speaker 10

I hope that's all right.

Speaker 2

Our work is done. Thank you.

Speaker 9

My question, related to with some of the experiences that you've had now reducing promotions, reducing sales and marketing. I believe back in March of 'twenty two, you guided sales and marketing kind of as a longer term target to be about 10% of revenue With promotions about 22% of GGR, based on kind of your experience in working those expenses lower, Do you guys feel there's an appropriate timeline or do you feel those targets have shifted at all?

Speaker 2

So we'll definitely talk more about this at our upcoming Investor Day in Q4. But I don't think that There's going to be a material change to either of those targets from what we're seeing today. But obviously, over the next few months, we'll continue to do the work to prepare and We'll have more to say on that in the fall.

Speaker 9

All right. Thank you, Jason.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Carlo.

Operator

Thank you. One moment please for our next question. Our next question will come from Bernie MacTiernan of Needham and Company. Your line is open.

Speaker 11

Great. Thanks. Good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. Jason, can you just expand some of the comments in the letter on AI?

Speaker 11

Should we think about them more as revenue generating Tunies or cost efficiencies and just any specific initiatives or products to point to that are in the works?

Speaker 2

I think it's definitely both. When you can do more for less, that drives both revenue and cost efficiency. And so I think that's really the thematic. Obviously, depending on what it is And where in the stage of development it is that will affect the relative ways that we use it. I think for example, Right now, with our developer efficiency initiatives, we're focused on how do we get more done with our development team.

Speaker 2

No, Joe. I think that what that probably means is over time, we don't need to add as many engineers to get the work done that we already didn't want As we continue to scale the business and build out the product and serve the customer. But I do think it's a combination if you think about it from a P and L standpoint of both cost opportunity revenue opportunity. None of that is baked into any of our guidance or any of the things we've shared in the past at Investor Day. This is something that we really view as upside and It's in the category of the long list of things that we're working on that we think could create even better long term economics for our shareholders.

Speaker 11

Is it helping some of the product roadmap that's coming out for this current NFL season? Or is that too early and it's more of a 2024, 2025 event?

Speaker 2

I think there will be some impacts. We've been working on machine learning for a long time and base level AI. I think some of the advances in what third party tools are out there and available have really hit an inflection point in the last months, and I think that's where really the opportunity lies to take it to the next level. But there's things we've been working on In and around this space for years. So there will be some impacts of the machine learning and AI work in this coming season.

Speaker 2

But I think some of the really big, more like things that can kind of fundamentally change the outlook of the business, those are still on the comp.

Speaker 5

Great. Thanks for taking my questions.

Operator

Thank you. One moment please for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Jed Kelly of Oppenheimer, your line is open.

Speaker 11

Hey, great. Thanks for taking my question. 2, if I may. Are you now just seeing structurally lower tax just on getting better amortization from your brand spend? And then can you speak to I know that the product enhancements, but what is keeping players more engaged outside of football?

Speaker 11

Is it some of The merchandising you're doing on the front page or products, just can you talk about the engagement trends you're seeing? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Yes. It's a great question. I think on the CAC side, it's a combination of several things. One, certainly what you're mentioning, this national Scale the brand that we've built and the leverage we're getting out of that. It's also this is another area of the business that's Constantly being analyzed and optimized.

Speaker 2

We have a team of analytics people. We have machine learning and now we're actually starting to implement AI As a means of helping with things like getting on PPC platforms or creation of multiple many multiples more of different types Creative that you can test and optimize in the market. So that's just a continual thing that we've been doing and I think It's going to continue and potentially could be even with some of the AI work that we're exploring and for another sort of step function improvement. But it is what you're saying too, absolutely. I think that there's sort of an underlying advantage that we have in that we have a brand, we have national scale, But then we also have a team that's really been honing and optimizing the marketing engine.

Speaker 2

And it's a complicated thing, right? I mean, this is very Not straightforward analysis. We're at any given point in time during our peak seasons spending in so many different places with so many different partners, So many different creatives in market. So it's really just the opportunity to just continually optimize an engine That I think should be a continual tailwind for us for many years to come.

Speaker 11

And then on player engagement,

Speaker 2

Right, so I think the big difference this year was the way that we are able to continue to retain NFL players into NBA season, and that's continued into baseball season as well. Those have both exceeded our expectations. We also have seen Cross sell into iGaming. Robin was asking about that earlier. That's continued as we've it's kind of like this halo effect of when you retain better and Cross more people into NBA on the sports side that then has some spillover effect on Igaming because more active players on the OSB Speed platform cross sell more into more active players on the iGaming products.

Speaker 2

So that's really, I think what I would If you look at past years, we've typically seen revenue decline Q2 to Q1. We weren't expecting this. I mean, this was the result of a huge market share gain year over year. Lots of really just metrics that for last year and a half, we've been testing and really just hit a Great point where the optimization is really kicking in, and just the culmination of a ton of great product work. I mean, the product is so much better year over year from where it was As I said earlier, I feel like in the back half of the year, we're going to have best product in the market.

Speaker 2

Yes, I think that's Mike, Chad.

Speaker 3

Look, I think all the work we do in that Sport to sport retention or sport to sport cross sell, however you want to think about it, you got to cross sell them. But most importantly, the product's got to be great When you're bringing NFL player into NBA or an NBA player into MLB, and we're just super proud of how strong both our NBA product and MLB product improved

Operator

One moment please for our next question. Our next question will come from Michael Graham of Canaccord. Your line is open.

Speaker 9

Thanks a lot and yes, awesome quarter guys. I wanted to ask on the growth outlook for the rest of the year. Can you maybe deconstruct that from the perspective The vintages of your states like how much of the growth you think is going to come from some of your newer states versus more established ones and related to that just Maybe a layer of depth into how you layered the launch of Kentucky into your outlook for Q3?

Speaker 2

Absolutely. So definitely, the bulk of the growth is going to come from the states that we launched From 2018 through 2021, we are starting to get some real good contribution from some of the 22 states as well. But I think the degree to which we are still seeing growth in our older states, it's just very significant They're obviously a bigger piece of the pie. So when you can get that kind of growth in your older states, it makes it very big impact on the overall business. And then I'm sorry, what was the second part of the question?

Speaker 2

Kentucky. Kentucky. So Kentucky, I think we had a slide on this, but We're projecting roughly, we're expecting, I should say, dollars 20,000,000 of revenue and $30,000,000 EBITDA loss From Kentucky in fiscal year 2023. And I think that assumes September 28 launch date. Last time when we guided, we did not actually have a clear launch date for Kentucky.

Speaker 2

And now that we do, we've put it into the guidance. And I'll note that despite that not being in our prior guide and now being in our current guide, we still had a massive improvement in the guide. That shows that not only can we fund new state launches through the results that we're generating in old states and the cost efficiencies we're finding, but we can do that and continue to see upside on top of that, which is a great story, I think, from years past where we've always had to kind of increase the loss outlook every

Speaker 12

Excellent. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. One moment please for our next question. Our next question will come from Brandt Montour of Barclays. Your line is open.

Speaker 12

Hey, good morning everybody. Just one for me. So back to the same game parlay enhancements for the upcoming NFL season, it sounds like you're pretty confident Jason, that product is going to be, the best, as you call it. I guess, it sounds like you baked in higher holds

Speaker 11

for this. It sounds like you

Speaker 12

And no share gains, if I'm reading your comments correctly. I guess the question is, are the product enhancements Differentiated enough that it could be a driver of market share Or is it the kind of thing where you would have to go out and get people to Flip from your main competitor to try it. How does the mechanics work of gaining share off something like that?

Speaker 2

No, I mean, you're right. It's a combination of 2 things. It could be actual wallet that was going to your Competitors, customers that were using your competitors before or it could simply be just better engagement and monetization of customers on your platform. And I think what we felt like in Q2, it was a combination of both. Definitely being able to increase whole rate year over year made a big difference in share.

Speaker 2

But it was a combination of both. We think we got handle share from people that were playing NBA with competitors last year as well. And I think that's really a result of just the product improvements year over year. So to answer your question, absolutely. Could there be upside?

Speaker 2

Yes. I mean, The goal for the team is to go out and beat anything that we put out there. And I think that we feel like we have quite a few initiatives that could help us gain share and could help us further And engage and monetize our users in the back half of the year. We've just consistently taken approach of not putting things that we don't feel we have full line site to in the guide, our guide we consider to be what we commit to. And then we go out, we try to deliver above that by executing better.

Speaker 2

And Getting better and hopefully some of the things that you hope come through, come through, but we don't put hope in the guide. We put what we know in the guide.

Speaker 12

Great. Thanks for the comments. Congrats on the quarter.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Again, one moment please for our next question. Our next question will come from Steven Giagolla of TD Cowen. Your line is open.

Speaker 13

Hi. Thanks for the question. On the updated implied second half Guidance and quarterly cadence versus your prior guide. Could you just walk us through your assumptions for the greater implied EBITDA upside to Q3 versus Q4, particularly in light of the Kentucky launch and favorable sport outcomes in Q3 last year. And also just what are the hold percentage rates you're assuming for Q3 and Q4?

Speaker 3

Thanks.

Speaker 2

Thank you. Yes, so we're assuming a similar hold rate What we had in the back half of last year, I think for the Q3, Q4 question, Kentucky definitely made a little bit of a difference, But the fact that we were able to increase the guide for the back half of the year, increase the Q4 guide, I think really had to do with Just the overall performance of the existing states that we're in and of the overall business on the cost efficiency side. And I think that that's more than enough to offset the Kentucky EBITDA that we're or negative EBITDA that we're expecting to generate in the back half of the year. So we're pretty optimistic about a really great second half. And I think we'll have to see exactly what ends up happening with states like North Carolina and Vermont.

Speaker 2

But right now, we Feel like Kentucky is going to provide a great opportunity for us to go and invest in acquiring customers and then our And there's also several new states that haven't had a full NFL season. Massachusetts hasn't had any NFL season. Ohio didn't launch So January last year, so there should be a lot of upside in I think the customer acquisition numbers in H2 this year.

Speaker 13

Jason, just one more if I can. In light of the Ohio move to double its tax rate, could you maybe just discuss The long term risk to your business and state governments would look to take increase in taxes on gross gaming revenue. And So what are the incentives that would keep state governments maintaining lower tax rates? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Yes. I think it's a great question. Obviously, disappointing to see, but I think most state governments understand that if you start taxing this too high, It kind of defeat the purpose because it makes it really impossible for the legal regulated operators to compete with the illegal offshore operators that are not Some of them onshore now. They're not paying taxes. They're not following regulations.

Speaker 2

There's I think great awareness of that in State legislatures. So I'm optimistic that states are going to keep taxes at a reasonable I think that they understand that they're ultimately going to drive volume back into the illegal market if they try to tax the industry too heavily.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Jason.

Operator

Thank you. One moment please for our next question. Our next question will come from Robert Fishman of MoffettNathanson. Your line is open.

Speaker 12

Hi, good morning guys. Two questions on partnership. First, ahead of the NFL kickoff, can you help us understand how The Amazon Thursday Night Football partnership helped your business last year and whether there are more opportunities to build upon that success this year. And then anything you can share on how the ESPN partnership has been a driver of your strong MUP growth or overall business? And would you be willing to expand your ESPN partnership depending on which direction Disney ends up going with its strategic view?

Speaker 2

Yes. So Amazon has been a great partner. Last year, we were really happy with Thursday Night Football results. That was a Big driver of customer acquisition for us. Those games are also really well built for same game parlay offerings.

Speaker 2

So, really helped drive a lot of parlay mix Through better promotion of Sing Game Parley's on Thursday night. And we have a few extra things that we're going to be doing on Amazon this year that I'm pretty excited about that will be, I think, coming to everybody in due order once the season launches. So really should be a great year with Amazon and we're really just thrilled with that partnership. And as far as ESPN goes, same story. We've been really happy with them as Partner, they've been great.

Speaker 2

We continue to get great value out of that relationship and we'll have to see. I think Obviously, we saw the same comments everybody else did from Bob Iger. And I think it's still fairly early days for them, but I don't want to speak for them. They'll know better than I am than I will what their plans are. But we're always happy with great partners like ESPN.

Speaker 2

If there's a way to have a Deeper relationship that makes sense for both companies, then it's something we would certainly consider. And if it doesn't make sense and there's something that Doesn't really work for us or for them, then we won't. We're perfectly happy with the relationship as it is now. So I think that's how we're thinking about it.

Speaker 12

Great. Thank you, Jason.

Operator

Thank you. One moment please for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Ryan Sigal of Craig Hallum Capital Group. Your line is open.

Speaker 5

Good morning, guys. Just one

Speaker 3

for us. You mentioned MLB has been a positive surprise. There's specific product that's resonating better with the player, whether it be live, same game parlay, etcetera?

Speaker 2

Yes. I think first of all, MLB itself has made some great changes that have helped increase engagement with the sports, so I give them credit for that. But I think betting has helped a lot too. MLB, first of all, is very well built for live betting. So that's been a real product that works very well with that sport and we're excited about the offering we have there this year.

Speaker 2

Also, the same game parlay product has been significantly enhanced this year. We brought our own models into the fold and I think really just improved both The UI and the overall offering of same game parlays for MLB. And there's been a number of other things we've done. We've done some work on Cash out feature. I mean, there's a lot of different areas that we've worked on that I think have really helped improve the MLB offering year over year.

Speaker 2

And that combined with Really strong engagement from a viewership perspective, I think, has driven unexpectedly positive to the upside results for MLB season so far.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Jason. Nice job, guys. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. One moment please for our next question. And our next question will come from Barry Jonas of Truist. Your line is open.

Speaker 10

Hey, guys. You've previously given some advice on how to think about NFL results and corresponding hold. Last year, it correlated, maybe a little less as the season went on. Just curious as we head into football season, if there's anything you can give us to help think about sort of that week to week success?

Speaker 2

Yes. I think it's very similar to what we had shared last year that the results can definitely range Between negative 10% and probably positive 20%, depending on if you're really taking like that 90 5% confidence interval can get that wide in any given week. Obviously, over the course of several weeks, over the course of the season, that band tightens. But that's how I would think about kind of a week to week thing. And really, it's the result generally in NFL of Two things.

Speaker 2

1, do the favorites win or lose, and second is how the player props do. And that second part has become increasingly important as The industry has evolved because so much betting is now happening on player props and so much thing game parlay depends on player props. So that's really made a big difference. I think given Q3 is always one that for our business planning group, it's their least favorite quarter because So much volume comes in the last 3 weeks of the quarter and not that it's the only thing going on, but like relatively speaking, July August are slower months. So it's really the last few weeks you get all this NFL volume and a few good or bad weeks Definitely swing the results a little bit, but I think that as we've gotten bigger and our customer base has become more diversified, the effects of that are lower as we've Gotten more of a mix of player parlay, so it's not just straight game outcomes.

Speaker 2

So I think we'll have to look at this season. I think this year we might see a little bit tighter band. Certainly over 3 weeks we will, but I think still fair given what we know today to think week to week about That minus 10% to plus 20 percent possibility on hold depending on the game outcomes and player parlay outcomes.

Speaker 3

That's helpful. And just a

Speaker 10

quick follow-up. Wanted to get your thoughts on Florida given the recent court decision. Do you see

Speaker 3

a pathway For DraftKings to compete in the state?

Speaker 2

I think it's too early to tell what the path is, but I'm optimistic there'll be a pathway there because I think people in Florida want great products. And so, I do think that it will get figured out. But right now, I think it's really Hard to say there's still going to be a few steps to play out and a few things with court rulings and other things. It's really at this point a little bit murky and I think we'll know a lot more in the coming months.

Speaker 3

Great. Congrats on the quarter. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. And one moment for our next question. Our next question will come from Jordan Bender of JMP Securities. Your line is open.

Speaker 11

Great. Thanks for taking my question. So you gave comments on where your GGR margin could potentially go over time, more of a wait and see. But I'll maybe ask this on the NGR margin side. That still lags international markets.

Speaker 11

Just given the parlay mix, Can we maybe exceed 10% to 12% NGR margins that we see in the international markets?

Speaker 2

I think that at this point, we have no reason to believe that we can't get to the same sort of NGR margins that we see internationally. But Obviously, there's still early it's still early days here. So, let's see how it plays out. But given the fact that We've over the last couple of years continued to optimize the hold rate, continued to optimize the promo mix, and we've actually seen better customer engagement, Better retention. I'm pretty optimistic and have no reason to believe that we can't reach similar type of numbers that you're talking And about the more mature markets across the globe have been able to get to.

Speaker 11

Great. And then just on the follow-up, you called out some States that have legalized but not launched yet. A market that we don't talk about is Nevada. Is there any interest from DraftKings to go into that

Speaker 2

Yes, we're definitely interested. I mean, Nevada is obviously an important state for gaming. There's a robust Forward steady market there. It is in person registration. So, I would temper any expectations for the possible contribution there.

Speaker 2

But I do think An important state because people go there who are our customers and they want to be able to make bets. And so I think being able Give them that option as well as to be able to access the Nevadans that are now betting with others and

Operator

And one moment please for our next question. Next question will come from Jeff Stancho of Stifel. Your line is open.

Speaker 11

Hey, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking our question and nice quarter. My question is on the continued structural hold rate expansion. It seems that a lot of time is spent talking The parlays and the impact on mix, but maybe not as much on the optimized trading and risk management improvements you guys have made. Can you just unpack this A bit more for us, I guess, are there specific bet types or sports where you've been getting better at minimizing these trading inefficiencies?

Speaker 11

And how How do you think about further upside here? Are there any comps you would point to or perhaps you're tracking an even better spread between call it the underlying vague And the realized hold rates. Thanks.

Speaker 2

It's a very good question. I think you're absolutely right that we've talked and everybody's Talked a lot about parlay mix and average leg count, and those are certainly very important drivers of whole rate improvement. But there is also There are also the other levers that you mentioned. I would say that really across the board, we feel we've improved. In fact, The Q2 outperformance is really more a function of those other things that you mentioned because Parley mix, even though it was way up year over year, was kind of on track with our expectations.

Speaker 2

So It was really the customer risk management, the trading improvements. We've spent a lot of dev effort on tooling for our traders to make it easier for them to adjust lines to spot soft lines to move them faster and to better optimize them. We've also really significantly invested in our modeling and approach for customer risk management. So I think those are things that are really paying off as well as you look at the hold rate improvement and the outperformance in Q2.

Speaker 11

That's helpful. Thanks, Jason.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. And one moment please for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of John DeCree of CBRE Securities. Your line is open.

Speaker 14

Good morning, Jason. Jason, thanks for taking all the questions. Maybe one back to the roots on DFS, much smaller piece of the business now, but I was wondering if you could give us a little insight as to how that business is trending in the context of customer acquisition. So as you enter new states, are you still getting a similar kind of initial cross sell out of DFS that you did maybe 2 to 3 years ago in your older vintage And then is DFS still kind of an ongoing tool in those older vintage states or you're still acquiring customers via DFS first? Absolutely.

Speaker 2

I mean, DFS actually has had a great year so far, and that's been driven by A lot of improvements we've made across the product. Basketball has seen a big jump year over year and that's something that you can sort of use as a little bit of a litmus test for Or maybe the advanced test for how NFL season is going to go because a lot of those drafts happen in the July, August timeframe. So very exciting year for DFS, we have some really good stuff planned for the back half of the year on that product. And it is continually adding new customers. We have seen really strong crossover Continue from DFS when we launch new states.

Speaker 2

So everything seems to be working on that front and it continues to be a big source of engagement for customers and States that don't have sports betting as well as a great funnel, for new states that launch.

Speaker 14

Thanks. And I think you answered my follow-up in there, but I'll just ask it explicitly. Customers that crossover from DFS to sports And or iGaming, are they still retained as DFS or you're seeing customers play, going back and forth still or what's the What happens when they cross over to OSB? Do they kind of reduce their time on DFS? Or are you still seeing multi product use across the customer base?

Speaker 2

Oh, definitely seeing multi product use. I mean, there's some cannibalization, of course, but it's not very significant. The products are pretty different and people like them for different reasons. People also are not Spending a ton of money on DFS, so it's really not like a big wallet thing to it's more of an engagement thing. And they are different products, and I think that they provide different types of experiences for people.

Speaker 2

So we are seeing A great deal of crossover, but we're also seeing great retention across all of those products as well. And it appears that the cannibalization is fairly minimal. And A lot of it also happens in the initial launch stages. People are very excited about sports betting. They maybe forget about DFS for a little bit.

Speaker 2

But what we're seeing in some of our older state vintages As time goes on, they come back, and some of the cannibalization, even though it wasn't that significant to begin with, even that Small bits of cannibalization we're seeing reverse in some of our older states.

Speaker 14

Great. I appreciate that, Jason, and congratulations on a fantastic quarter.

Speaker 2

Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. And this will end the Q and A session. I would now like to turn the conference back to Jason Robbins for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you all for joining us on today's call. We had an excellent first half of twenty twenty three. We are laser focused on the back half and on the fall, and we're very excited about the rest of the year and beyond. I look forward to speaking with you over the next few weeks and hope you all stay safe and well. Thank you.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect. Have a pleasant day and enjoy your week.

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Earnings Conference Call
DraftKings Q2 2023
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