The nascent online sports betting market continues to fluctuate, and the publicly-traded DraftKings is once again enjoying life at the top.
DraftKings DKNG reported revenue of $790 million in Q3 2023, which is up 57% over the same quarter from a year ago and soaring past estimates of $686 million. The spike coincides with the height of sports season as both the NFL and college football kicked off in the back half of the quarter.
The sportsbook also overtook FanDuel in terms of gross gaming revenue in Q3 through August 23, taking 31% of the market share versus 30% for the former leader.
FanDuel still has the lead specific to sports betting at 39.3% to DraftKings' 34.1%.
"The first three quarters of 2023 have been outstanding for DraftKings," CEO Jason Robins said during the Q3 2023 earnings call on Friday. "We have made thoughtful investments in our product throughout the year and are winning with our customers and our team executed tremendously around the start of NFL and college football season. We remain focused on our core value drivers: acquiring customers efficiently, retaining and monetizing our existing customers entering new jurisdiction and building an efficient scaled organization."
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The strong revenue gains for DraftKings led the company to announce that it's raising its 2023 fiscal year revenue projection to a range of $3.67 billion to $3.72 billion. It was previously projected at a range from $3.46 billion to $3.54 billion.
The company also forecast its 2024 revenue projections at a range of $4.50 billion to $4.80 billion, which would be over 25% growth versus its projection for 2023.
DraftKings also announced that it increased it saw monthly unique players at about 2.3 million, an increase of 40% versus last year.
The announcements have boosted the DraftKings stock price which opened at $30.32 per share on Friday. It is already up to $31.62 as of this writing and is quickly rising. After the stock struggled through most of 2022, DraftKings stock is up 184% year-to-date.
While the price is still a far cry from early 2021 when its stock was priced close to $72 per share, it could be on the verge of breaking through its 2023 ceiling of $32.38 from late July.
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One of the notable moves DraftKings made in the quarter was cutting down marketing spend from around $321.7 million in Q3 2022 to $313.3 million in Q3 2023. That's the first drop in quarterly marketing spend versus year prior for the company since 2019, according to Sportico.
DraftKings said it is set to announce more of its future strategy, including multi-year projections, during its Investor Day which is scheduled for November 14.
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