What happened
Shares of DraftKings (DKNG -1.38%) plunged 21.6% on Friday, after the fantasy sports and online betting company warned of larger losses in the coming year.
So what
DraftKings' revenue climbed 47% year over year to $473 million in the fourth quarter. The gains were driven by its entrance into newly legalized gambling markets and intensified customer-acquisition efforts.
A total of 2 million unique paying customers engaged with DraftKings' platform each month during the quarter. That's up 32% from the prior-year period.
DraftKings is also getting better at monetizing its customer relationships. Cross-selling its customers into more products helped its average revenue per monthly unique payer jump 19% to $77.
Still, DraftKings is far from profitable. It generated a net loss of $326 million in the fourth quarter alone. Its adjusted loss per share of $0.35, however, was better than the $0.81 per-share loss Wall Street had expected.
Bettors are flocking to DraftKings, but the company's losses are mounting. Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
DraftKings said new state launches would help its full-year revenue grow by 43% to 54%. Its updated sales forecast of $1.85 billion to $2 billion is up from a prior estimate of $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion.
Management, however, cautioned that the company would generate an adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) loss of $825 million to $925 million in 2022, in part because of the expenses related to entering new markets in New York and Louisiana. Analysts had expected an adjusted EBITDA loss of only $573 million.
