LISBON, Portugal — DraftKings CEO Jason Robins offered a forceful defense of his company’s responsible gaming approach on Tuesday, amid a run of challenging press.
Speaking at SBC Summit as part of a keynote panel with Michael Jordan and Sportradar CEO Carsten Koerl, Robins responded to a question about responsible gaming from moderator Kirsty Gallagher with a passionate answer, days after recent stories about DraftKings’ use of AI by The New York Times and its approach to problem gamblers by ProPublica.
“I think a lot of people — and it’s frustrating for us — look at us and say, you’re motivated by the wrong things. You don’t want people to bet within their means, you want to take advantage of people. That could not be farther from the truth. Every single person in the company will tell you that it’s not at all what we want. That’s the worst possible thing for our company, for our industry,” Robins said.
DraftKings responsible gaming philosophy, in CEO’s words
Robins discussed his company’s approach to responsible gambling as an ideology coded into DraftKings operations during the keynote panel.
“A huge part of that culture around responsible gaming is making sure it’s not just a process, a set of things that people do but it’s actually truly a part of the DNA of the company. Every single person in the company cares about it. If you ask anyone — down from the customer service associates, the engineers, anyone — they will tell you that this is a priority for the company. It is something that we really, really emphasize day in and day out,” Robins said.
The CEO continued his remarks by edging closer to how DraftKings deals with responsibility on an individual level.
“And yes, there are things that of course can always be improved but not for lack of effort. We are always trying,” Robins said.
“More on the consumer, on the responsibility side, that’s a trickier question, right? Because how do you ultimately tell people what is right and wrong for them? That’s tough. But what you can do is you can create tools, you can create opportunities for them to understand what they’re doing and for us to say, listen, this is something that maybe you want to set a limit on, you want to take a cool-off period.
“Obviously there are more egregious cases where you actually have to block accounts of people who are just not using the product in a way that we feel is responsible.”
Robins on setting a budget for gambling
Robins likened how people should approach sports betting to how they should deal with other personal enjoyment or entertainment.
“But in the end, it’s about empowering the customer to do what is right for them. For a lot of people, it’s not necessarily an all-or-nothing – it’s a how do you manage this, right? If you love something, if you’re somebody who’s really into it, you want to make sure regardless of what it is — if you like to go out to eat, if you like to shop, you should set a budget. You should make sure you’re not spending beyond your means.
“Same thing with betting: if you love to bet, that’s a good thing, that’s a fun thing that makes you happy, you still should set a budget. You should still make sure you’re doing it within your means.”
DraftKings CEO: “Some people don’t give us that benefit of the doubt”
Robins restated his frustration with those who see DraftKings through the lens of what MGM Resorts CEO Bill Hornbuckle referred to Tuesday at the G2E convention in Las Vegas as a negative “twist” in recent media articles.
“So really, the important thing for us is to make sure that we’re doing the best we can. But the problem I think we often face is not everyone perceives it that way. Some people don’t give us that benefit of the doubt,” Robins said.
“They think that we are motivated by the wrong things, which is a tough part of being in the industry, but I can unequivocally tell you that the culture that we have is absolutely the opposite of that. It’s heavily focused on responsibility, heavily focused on long-term sustainability and really every day, day in and day out, trying to do the right thing by the customer.”
Robins further emphasized that DraftKings offers a suite of RG tools including self-regulated deposit limits and time spent on the company’s Super App to help give them the “positive, happy experience” the company seeks.
