Getty Image
DraftKings Sportsbook is backtracking, quickly, after announcing a plan to introduce a tax on winning bets in order to remain competitive in the market
As you can imagine, that announcement didn’t go over well with the betting company’s users, especially after CEO Jason Robins issued a statement on the matter that only made things worse.
Now DraftKings has announced that it will no longer take a portion of the winner’s profits after FanDuel and other notable books failed to follow suit.
“Obviously, some people might just react negatively to the idea of being charged at all. But it’s really fairly nominal and it makes a huge difference in our ability to make a reasonable margin,” Robbins said in his initial statement. “And also, more importantly, to compete with the illegal market, which pays no taxes and has the ability to invest 100% of their revenue into product and other things.”
Sooo why should users care about DraftKings’ profit margin?
“So for us to be able to be competitive with the illegal market and invest properly in product and customer experience in a state that has a very high tax rate, we feel it is an important step that consumers will ultimately understand if they feel the product and experience is better, then they’d rather pay for that than somewhere else that maybe doesn’t have a strong a product.”
They did not, in fact, ultimately understand.
“We always listen to our customers and after hearing their feedback we have decided not to move forward with the gaming tax surcharge,” DraftKings tweeted at 6 pm EST Tuesday.
That came just two hours after FanDuel announced it would not follow DraftKings’ lead in taking a portion of users’ winnings.
Both ESPN Bet and BetRivers announced in the past week they would not impose a winner surcharge either.
Ultimately, it’s a huge win for DraftKings bettors. But it shouldn’t have taken all this backlash for them realize this was a bad idea.