DraftKings Posts $115M Adjusted EBITDA as Predictions Offering Surges
The sports betting operator maintained full-year guidance while rapidly scaling its new predictions platform, which has attracted over 600,000 customers year-to-date.
Strong Quarter Despite Sports Headwinds
DraftKings Inc. delivered second-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $115 million while maintaining its full-year 2026 guidance of $700 million to $900 million, despite customer-friendly sports outcomes and accelerated investment in customer acquisition (earnings call, 2026-08-07).
The company's core sportsbook business generated robust growth, with customer acquisition surging nearly 75% year-over-year and sports consumer volume—including both sportsbook handle and predictions volume—increasing 15% year-over-year in the quarter (earnings call, 2026-08-07). CEO Jason Robins said the core business remains "on track to generate approximately $1 billion of adjusted EBITDA in 2026" (earnings call, 2026-08-07).
Customer acquisition costs came in approximately 25% better than anticipated, representing the company's "best enterprise-wide customer acquisition cost since the first quarter 2025" (earnings call, 2026-08-07). The company acquired roughly 30% more customers than planned during the quarter, driven by heightened interest in the NBA finals and the World Cup.
Predictions Platform Exceeds Expectations
The company's nationwide predictions offering has emerged as a significant growth driver. Over 600,000 customers have engaged with DraftKings Sports predictions year-to-date, with adoption "far surpass[ing] our expectations" according to Robins (earnings call, 2026-08-07).
From April to July, annualized total volume traded on the predictions platform grew nearly fivefold from $2.3 billion to $11 billion (earnings call, 2026-08-07). More than half of predictions customers have engaged with combos, which already represent approximately 20% of predictions consumer volume (earnings call, 2026-08-07).
The company expanded its sports content offering by over 25 times from April to July and now offers over 30 markets per MLB, NBA, and WNBA game (earnings call, 2026-08-07). In June, DraftKings launched its in-house exchange, DKeX, and in July obtained approval as a Futures Commission Merchant from the National Futures Association (earnings call, 2026-08-07).
Core Sportsbook Momentum Continues
Sportsbook handle increased 11% year-over-year in the second quarter, with parlay handle mix continuing to rise (earnings call, 2026-08-07). For the third consecutive quarter, the company's handle share across sportsbook states improved year-over-year (earnings call, 2026-08-07).
World Cup engagement proved particularly strong, with sportsbook handle "approximately 6x higher than during the 2022 World Cup and approximately 4.5x on a same-state basis," according to CFO Alan Ellingson (earnings call, 2026-08-07). The company experienced customer-friendly outcomes in June, particularly from the Mavericks' championship win, but these were mostly offset by positive World Cup outcomes in July (earnings call, 2026-08-07).
On a trailing 12-month basis, net revenue per unique customer grew 14% year-over-year in the first half of 2026 (earnings call, 2026-08-07). Monthly unique payers growth accelerated to 9% year-over-year, or more than 6% excluding World Cup-only customers (earnings call, 2026-08-07).
The company maintained its fiscal year 2026 revenue guidance range of $6.5 billion to $6.9 billion despite the investment in predictions (earnings call, 2026-08-07). According to MarginX data, DraftKings is expected to report third-quarter 2026 results on November 5, 2026.
This article was generated by MarginX from the earnings call on 2026-08-07. It is not investment advice.