DraftKings eliminates more than 100 jobs to reduce costs

DraftKings has today laid off around 140 employees, iGaming NEXT can reveal.

The US operator confirmed it had “eliminated” the positions following an internal reorganisation designed to keep compensation expenses flat year-over-year.

DraftKings employees based in Ukraine were impacted, with many of the cuts taking place across the company’s Eastern European business hubs.

The operator is keen to focus on operational efficiency as investors keep an increasingly close eye on the profitability potential of leading US sports betting operators.

“With an increased focus on operational efficiencies, we are constantly evaluating our teams to ensure that they are best positioned to meet our company goals in 2023 and beyond,” said DraftKings VP of global communications Sabrina Macias.

“We have decided to reorganise some teams which is resulting in the elimination of approximately 140 roles,” she added.

iGaming NEXT understands the talent acquisition and engineering teams were among those impacted by the cuts, with DraftKings eager to divert its technical resources away from B2B and into higher priority projects such as platform.

The company said it would not provide any financial projections for the process at this time.

The US gaming operator announced last month it was terminating its DFS service in several European markets including Malta.

DraftKings is due to report its Q4 2022 financial results on 17 February 2023. The company is expected to report annual losses of between $780m and $800m for full-year 2022.

In Q3, DraftKings revealed it expects to lose as much as $575m in full-year 2023, having already racked up more than $3bn in losses between calendar year 2019 and calendar year 2021.

DraftKings is projecting to promote its sportsbook heavily in Massachusetts, it’s home state, when mobile sports betting begins there in March.

Player acquisition costs for marketing, free bets and other promotions around state launches are one of the primary sources for the company’s revenue loses.

With no more state launches beyond Massachusetts planned for 2023, DraftKings is hoping it can achieve a profitable quarter by Q4 of this year.