DraftKings CEO dismisses stock plunge, says it’s a ‘wild market right

Friday’s plunge in DraftKings shares is a reflection of an unstable stock market and not the sports betting company’s performance, CEO Jason Robins suggested on CNBC.

“It’s a wild market right now. I think what we’re doing has been very consistent since day one,” Robins said on “Squawk on the Street,” the day after releasing quarterly results. “I think the model’s working, and we’ll play the long game here.”

“I’m very confident that once the market settles down and rationality kicks back in, that the metrics we’re putting out there will start to resonate,” he added. “But in the meantime, we’ve just got to keep doing our thing and hopefully the market will catch on.”

DraftKings dropped roughly 17% on Friday after forecasting a much wider-than-expected adjusted EBITDA loss of $825 million to $925 million for 2022. Estimates had been calling for a full-year earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization loss of $572.7 million. The company did, however, guide 2022 revenue higher, while reporting a narrower-than-expected fourth-quarter 2021 loss on better-than-expected revenue.

Robins said, “We have a multi-year plan. That plan goes out five years and we have certain milestones we need to hit each year to get there, and so far we’ve hit them all.”

The CEO acknowledged investors’ concerns about the company’s EBITDA loss forecast.

“Certainly, I think consensus for EBITDA, which we did not guide to until now, has been all over the place,” Robins said. But he stressed, “We haven’t missed a single number that we’ve put out there, and so I think our track record speaks for itself.”