DraftKings, one of the leading sports betting and iGaming brands in the United States, generated a revenue of US$417 million during the first quarter of 2022, marking a 34% year-over-year (YoY) increase on the first three months of 2021. Out of the $417 million, $404 million came from the brand’s B2C offering, witnessing a YoY growth of 44%.
“DraftKings delivered significant growth across our key revenue and performance metrics,” said Jason Robins, DraftKings’ Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. “We are not seeing any impact from inflationary pressures on customer demand, and we continue to improve the user experience by adding breadth and depth to our DFS, mobile sports betting and iGaming products. We are also improving our efficiency in acquiring and retaining customers and have a strong pipeline of new jurisdictions to enter.”
The company’s monthly unique players rose to 2 million in Q1, a 29% increase, reflecting a strong unique payer retention and acquisition. The growth could be credited with the Empire State with launches in New York and Lousiana being a definite boon for the operator. Accordingly, the average revenue per monthly unique player is now up at 11% and pegged at US$67.
Despite this improved performance, DraftKings’ operating expenses in Q1 2022 hit US$933 million, up by 46% YoY, contributing to a loss of US$468 million during the quarter, having made a US$346 million loss during the same period last year. Part of those increased expenses comes from the expansion of DraftKings’ operations across the US.
However, although coming in at a loss, the yearly guidance for adjusted EBITDA exceeded its midpoint by 12%. So, for its 2022 fiscal performance, the sports betting brand is now projecting revenue guidance between US$1.92 billion and US$2.02 billion, after initially expecting a figure between US$1.85 billion and US$2 billion.
Jason added, “We are pleased with our strong revenue and Adjusted EBITDA performance in the first quarter, which was driven by healthy underlying customer behavior and our ability to capture efficiencies. Therefore, we are increasing the midpoint of our fiscal year 2022 revenue guidance by $50m and improving the midpoint of our fiscal year 2022 Adjusted EBITDA guidance by $75m.”
DraftKings is now live with mobile sports betting in 17 states and iGaming in 5 states, collectively representing approx. 36% and 11% of the U.S. population respectively. And as the company looks beyond Q1, it also highlighted the potential of California, which, if approved this coming November, would become the nation’s biggest market at launch.
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