DraftKings ups guidance as revenue grows 252% but losses rise further
| By Daniel O'Boyle
DraftKings’ revenue continued to rocket in Q1, growing 252.7% to $312.3m, but losses widened as the operator’s sky-high costs of sales and marketing costs continued to grow faster than revenue.
Following the revenue growth, DraftKings upped its full-year revenue guidance to between $1.05bn and $1.15bn. The guidance had previously been set between $900m and $1bn.
“We are raising our revenue outlook for 2021 due to the outperformance of our core business in the first quarter and our expectation for continued healthy growth,” DraftKings chief financial officer Jason Park said.
As DraftKings closed its merger with betting supplier SBTech in April 2020, the business provided comparisons to both its actual earnings in Q1 of 2020 and its pro-forma results, which state the combined earnings of the two businesses. On a pro-forma basis, DraftKings’ revenue was up 175.3% year-on-year.