Earned & PaidDraftKings
DraftKings spent $1.12B on advertising and marketing in fiscal 2025, up 7.1% on the year before. That's 18.6% of revenue.
Marketing spend by year
Bars: advertising and marketing expense, $B (10-K). Line: spend as a share of revenue.
What they told investors
“The pace of adoption has far surpassed our expectations, and we are acquiring these customers at attractive customer acquisition costs, well below what we invest to acquire Sportsbook customers.”Jason Robins · 2026 Q2 · transcript
“our Predictions customer acquisition costs declined by more than 80% in April”Jason Robins · 2026 Q1 · transcript
“But I do think that in terms of the amount allocated to the core, you're going to see that continue to decline as Prediction spend ramps.”management · 2026 Q1 · transcript
“We have the entire other half of the country now open to us, and we haven't even begun to ramp marketing.”management · 2026 Q1 · transcript
What the 10-K says about marketing
- investing in brand “We also make significant investments in sales and marketing and incentives to grow, retain, and monetize our paid user base, including personalized cross-product offers and promotions, and promote brand awareness to attract the “skin-in-the-game” sports fan. Together, these…” 10-K, Feb 13, 2026
- investing in brand “League, Team, and Media Relationships — We maintain relationships with sports leagues and professional sports teams to improve our brand awareness, improve user retention and create unique collaborative integrations for our users.” 10-K, Feb 13, 2026
- investing in brand “We also make significant investments in sales and marketing and incentives to grow and retain our paid user base, including personalized cross-product offers and promotions, and promote brand awareness to attract the “skin-in-the-game” sports fan. Together, these investments…” 10-K, Feb 13, 2026
Say vs do
DraftKings's management has talked about its marketing budget, but in ways annual filings can't check: one quarter, one brand or channel, or the mix.
What they said
“But I do think that in terms of the amount allocated to the core, you're going to see that continue to decline as Prediction spend ramps.”
Management on the 2026 Q1 earnings call, Jun 1, 2026 · transcript
Can't tell from annual filings It's about part of the business; filings report one company-wide number.
What they did
| Year | Marketing spend | Change | Share of revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $1.12B | +7.1% | 18.6% |
| FY2024 | $1.05B | +6.7% | 22.0% |
| FY2023 | $984M | +2.0% | 26.9% |
| FY2022 | $965M | +16.1% | 43.1% |
| FY2021 | $831M | +93.3% | 64.1% |
Against its peers. Compared with the 2 other Gambling advertisers we track (MGM Resorts, Caesars): last year +7.1% (median +3.1%).
How we check: a statement gets a verdict only when it's clearly about the size of the whole company's marketing budget over a full fiscal year; we compare it with the advertising and marketing expense in that year's 10-K. Statements about one quarter, one brand or channel, or the mix between brand and performance can't be checked against annual filings.
What they say about media
The marketing channels it talks about using for itself on earnings calls and in its 10-Ks and 10-Qs, since 2019; counts are statements, not spending.
- Sponsorships & athletes “I do think, in this case, though, remember, we already have a huge national marketing footprint partners like ESPN, NBC, Amazon, several sports leagues and others.” Jason Robins on the earnings call · Aug 13, 2026 · source
- Creative campaigns “We can just refine our message, which we started to do in Q2, that DraftKings is now available in all these other places, and really make those same dollars work for us across the country, whereas before it was only about half the population.” Jason Robins on the earnings call · Aug 13, 2026 · source
- Measurement “Our marketing spend is based on a return-on-investment model that considers a variety of factors, including the performance of different marketing channels, predicted lifetime value and behavior of users across various product offerings, the location of our users and our…” 10-K · Feb 13, 2026 · source
- CRM, loyalty & first-party data “In addition to traditional paid advertising channels, we cross-promote our product offerings to our users through internal channels such as email and push notifications.” 10-K · Feb 13, 2026 · source
- Linear TV “To the extent that you do end up using a lot more of the sort of Amazon and NBC and ESPN national inventory that you have for prediction.” William Lampen on the earnings call · Feb 13, 2026 · source
What they see in the market
What its leaders and filings say about the ad market: its own ad business, or the channels advertisers use, since 2019; counts are statements, not spending.
- Sponsorships & athletes · Creative campaigns “We announced in September that Amazon selected DraftKings as a sponsor in an exclusive pregame provider for Thursday night Football on Prime Video.” Jason Robins on the earnings call · Nov 4, 2022 · source
- Connected TV & streaming “This is a unique opportunity to engage with customers in a true digital environment.” Jason Robins on the earnings call · Nov 4, 2022 · source
- Organic social & content “In the first 24-hours of streaming, the DraftKings Prop Reveal show received over 1 million views across the app in social handles.” Jason Robins on the earnings call · Feb 26, 2021 · source
- Linear TV “And this will come as no surprise, is television is definitely typically the most expensive channel, but also the highest reach channel so -- and certainly, from a creative standpoint, television ads can -- you can say a lot more in a 30 seconds or 60 seconds or even 15-second…” Jason Robins on the earnings call · Feb 26, 2021 · source
In the news
- DraftKings ‘Free Bet’ Promos Targeted Problem Gamblers Using AI: Report AboutLawsuits.com · Sep 29, 2026 · AI in marketing
- DraftKings And Dark Patterns: When Personalization Hurts The Customer Forbes · Sep 29, 2026 · marketing
- DraftKings Named Exclusive Sportsbook and Online Casino Integration Sponsor of NHL on Prime’s Wednesday Night Hockey for the 2026-27 Season Business Wire · Sep 28, 2026 · sponsorship
- DraftKings named exclusive sportsbook sponsor of NHL on Prime Video (DKNG:NASDAQ) Seeking Alpha · Sep 28, 2026 · sponsorship