DraftKings Inc. (NASDAQ:DKNG) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Jason Robins: I think that’s an extremely important question. And really, in the end, it’s all about the customer. We start there. What’s nice about the parlay product is customers love it. It’s something that I think helps with retention of the product offering keeps getting stronger. So we don’t view it as a trade-off at all. We look at it and start with the customer, find the products that the customers want and then ideally construct those products in a way that is both really exciting and benefits the customer and also create attractive economics for the Company. And I think parlay is a great example of that. We’ve had DFS for years. And while certainly, DFS is a skill game, while certainly people do win, it’s not as common.

But when they win, they have an opportunity in these big tournaments to win very large prices. And I think the parlay product functions the same way. If somebody does a very large parlay with lots of legs, they have an opportunity to turn a very small bet into a large payday. And I think that’s really the value prop that’s unique about the parlay product relative to the singles bets.

Carlo Santarelli: Great. And then if I could, just one follow-up. In terms of adjusted sales and marketing, I think the external marketing in ’22 was a little over $800 million, you guys disclosed. The total was a little over $1.1 billion. Should we expect, as soon as ’23, that, that line starts to — that, that expense starts to come down a little bit this year? Or is that relatively flat this year and maybe you leverage a little bit of the revenue growth? And then maybe in subsequent years is where we start to see that sales and marketing kind of chip away and go lower?

Jason Robins: I think that’s right. I think we’ll be relatively flat this year. I think that we’re — obviously, some of this will depend on the cadence of state launches. But based on sort of a baseline expectation, I think will be relatively flat this year. And as you noted, I think as more and more states mature, as the market overall matures, you’ll start to see it tail down a little bit. But this year, I think we’re expecting to be basically flat year-over-year.

Operator: Thank you. One moment. Our next question comes from Ed Young with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Ed Young: And first of all, just to say thank you for some of the extra disclosure in the presentation. It’s really very useful and appreciated. I want to ask about the statement you’ve reiterated really, which is around producing your first adjusted EBITDA positive quarter in the fourth quarter of this year and then how that set up ’24. Given as you mentioned that you were there this Q4, except for the new state investment, can you just help us sort of think about that statement? Is that due to the cadence of the cost savings that you mentioned? Is that due to conservatism around the new state launches and not having perfect line of sight to that? Or is there anything else? Is there a reason particularly why that couldn’t come earlier, you just maybe just want to commit yourself to that?

Jason Robins: Yes. I think — so it’s a great question, Ed. Certainly, there’s seasonality of the business, and there are quarters where there’s deeper marketing investment like Q1 and Q3. I think that, for us right now, especially given Ohio, Maryland or brand-new Massachusetts, we expect to launch, hopefully, sometime in March, I do think that, that’s really the reason behind us staying with the Q4 message. I think because of those launches, we expect an even better Q4. And what we’re seeing is that those states so far, Maryland and Ohio, at least are ramping faster, even in Arizona. Arizona was the fastest-ramping state we had, and some of our more recent states like Maryland and Ohio have really even been faster. So, I think the good news is that, that’s going to contribute more contribution profit sooner.

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