DraftKings CEO Jason Robins: Our vision is to be the hub of all betting, not just sports

Published Thu, Aug 27 202012:37 PM EDT

Key Points

DraftKings CEO and co-founder Jason Robins tells CNBC his aspiration is to be valued 'like the great tech companies.'
He says SPAC market may be overheating: 'not a fit for everyone.'
Sports betting is just the start of DraftKings ‘vision’ to be the hub of gambling on many aspects of life.

A View from the Top is a Q & A series exclusively available on CNBC Pro . Alex Sherman will regularly speak with a business leader about decision-making, investing and industry news. Special purpose acquisition companies are all the rage on Wall Street now, and there's little doubt the craze has a lot to do with the success of DraftKings, which debuted as a $3 billion company and quickly surged to a market valuation of more than $12 billion. While growth companies like DraftKings have historically avoided SPACs, the company's success has opened the eyes of entrepreneurs, executives and investors that there's a new way to go public. But while DraftKings co-founder and CEO Jason Robins is pleased to have started a trend, he tells CNBC that "if that's all we ever accomplish, then shame on us." He explains how his long-term vision for the company involves betting of all kinds — not just sports — and says that while there is not a comparable company to DraftKings today, he eventually wants to be compared to the "major distruptors: Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook and Apple." Here's the full Q & A: (This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.) Alex Sherman, CNBC: My mom is in an investment club. And she asked me, 'Should I buy DraftKings?' What are the comparable companies?' And I said, to be honest, I'm not 100% sure how the company comps itself but I'll ask the CEO what he tells his own theoretical investors or shareholders. So maybe you can help me understand how you value the company? Jason Robins , DraftKings Co-founder and CEO : Well, I think one of the things I don't have to do, thankfully, is value the company. That's something that I let the market do, and I think from my end, really, we want to be in a class of our own. Our aspiration is to be like many of the great tech companies out there, viewed in sort of our own category, and if anything comp to those major disruptors, companies like Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook, Apple. I am by no means saying that's what we should be compared to now. I think we have a lot of work ahead of us before we... You don't think you're quite at the $1 trillion valuation mark? Not quite now. I hope to get there one day, but I think we have a lot of work ahead of us to be mentioned in the same breath as those companies. But that's our aspiration. We kind of talk about it as our goal is to be incomparable. We want people to view us as so disruptive and so growth-oriented and have such limitless potential that there really isn't anything else out there that you can point to and say, yeah, that's a perfect comp for DraftKings. And yet there are competitors certainly out there. There are fairly arduous barriers to entry i