FanDuel CEO: We’re seeing ‘a lot of strong interest in the World Series specifically’
FanDuel CEO Matt King joins Yahoo Finance’s Zack Guzman to discuss the latest in sports betting as professional sports continue amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Video Transcript
ZACK GUZMAN: As we've been discussing this week, the World Series is ongoing here. The series is currently tied 1-1, but interest seems to be waning. We highlighted the cost of ticket prices there in the series. And it looks like that's quickly plummeting here. According to TicketIQ, potentially, we could see the cheapest prices at the World Series since they started tracking that-- the cheapest in the last 11 years, depending on where prices go.
But it seems to point back to the idea of waning sports interest here in 2020. And big question marks on that front. Here to answer some of those with us is the CEO of FanDuel, the big sports betting and daily fantasy app. Here with us, Matt King joins us now.
And Matt, good to have you back with us. I mean, talk to me about what you're seeing in terms of demand on the betting front, because when it comes to people actually wanting to show up and go to this series, it doesn't look too strong.
MATT KING: Well, from a betting front, demand continues to be off the charts. We see a ton of interest in betting. You know, obviously, it's new in a bunch of states. It's-- we're now in the second or third year in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. But generally, kind of our business continues to be really strong with a lot of strong interest in the World Series, specifically,
ZACK GUZMAN: Another interesting thing, too, when you look at states betting on the series, you guys point out that right now, overall, the Dodgers are the extreme favorite to win the series, except for one of your betting markets. When you look at bettors in Illinois, betting heavy on the Rays. I don't know why that might be. It's not exactly their team. But talk to me about that.
MATT KING: You know, I think it's-- it's cold in Chicago, now, so people just started thinking about Florida.
[CHUCKLING]
So-- no, it's-- you know, it's funny to see all of the different geographic differences. And you see it in football. You see in baseball. And you know, it creates a nice, balanced book for us, which is great.
ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, and I mean, when we think about shifting preferences here, of course, I'd be curious, too. You've talked in the past about demographics of bettors here and how, you know, you might have a baseball bettor also betting on football, also betting on the NBA. Maybe that has something to do with all these things being played out together-- why we might see a shrinking of interest across all sports.
But when you do compare the demographics across, maybe, a more baseball-focused bettor to an NBA or an NFL, is there anything that stands out to you in the data behind who these bettors are?
MATT KING: It's a great question. I think baseball-- it generally tracks the audience, right? So if I said baseball audience tends to be a little bit-- bettors tend to be a little bit older than a basketball bettor-- and then football kind of sits somewhere in the middle. So I think it largely tracks demographics.
I do think the other thing that's different is baseball's probably the most regional sport in some ways, where, you know, if you had ended up with the Cubs or the White Sox in the World Series, you know that interest would be off the charts in Illinois. And I think that's one of the challenges that you have with baseball that you don't have as much with the NBA or NFL, that kind of-- it doesn't matter what teams are there. There's always going to be a bunch of underlying interest.
ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, there might be some-- some piece of that puzzle, in terms of why ticket interests might be down since they're playing at a neutral site for the first time in Arlington. So maybe that's a piece of it, too.
But I want to shift over to the NFL because that has been something I asked you about, what, every time you come on the show here in 2020? When we think about what's going on on the COVID front there, it seems like those issues continue. In Las Vegas, sending Trent Bound-- Trent Brown to the COVID-19 list, the entire O line got sent home here, as well. Talk to me about-- talk to me about those issues and how it is impacting maybe some betting out there. I know even in survival pools, there is a question of whether these games get played that's throwing wrenches into some fantasy issues here, as well.
MATT KING: Yeah. So fantasy is probably the bigger issue, where people are picking lineups across all the games. So if one game gets canceled, you've got to get people to go back in and change their lineups. You know, we pride ourselves on being absurdly fan focused. And so when something surprising happens at the last minute, if it creates a bad customer experience, we're going to fix that for users. And so fantasy is the bigger issue.
I would also say all of our users have gotten used to having to be adaptive, right? I think we've all had to get used to being more adaptable in life. And so it just kind of become a little bit expected that you're going to have issues somewhere or another.
ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, I mean, when you talk about those issues-- last question before we let you go-- we talked a lot about catalysts here last time were on. Since October, one of your main competitors has seen shares fall about 34%. I know you're not going to comment on what's going on with DraftKings.
But stepping back and just looking at maybe some of the headwinds facing the growth right now, in terms of the overall sports betting market there, talk to me about some of those risks that you're seeing here and maybe why 2020 might not be as strong as maybe what some people were expecting heading into it at the beginning of the year.
MATT KING: So I think from our perspective, 2020 is going to far exceed our in-going expectations, even with COVID. I think as you look at the long-term outlook for sports betting, we are very, very pleased with the growth that we've seen in the states that we have turned on. I would say if you've seen any place where things may not have been as fast as people expected in 2021-- in 2020, that would be the number of new states passing legislation in 2020. And a lot of that's a function of COVID hit right when state legislatures were in session. A lot of state legislatures went out of session because of COVID. And so you lost a lot of the 2020 state legislative session.
We think you'll see some of that catch up at the back part of this year. And so it'll create a lot of momentum going into 2021, particularly when you see it compounded by the fact that states are facing significant fiscal issues. And when they go into their 2021 sessions, they're going to see sports betting. And oftentimes, online gaming is kind of common sense legislation to help them fill some of the deficit holes that they have.
