Jason Robins

BIOGRAPHY

Why a Tech Power Player? For growing and leading the region’s biggest online sports betting company.

Jason Robins started with a fantasy — fantasy sports, that is. From there, he built a company that has become one of the nation’s leading sports betting and gaming companies.

Robins, chairman, CEO, and cofounder of DraftKings, has brought his company’s sportsbook offerings to more than 20 states and grown DraftKings’ stock market value to $10 billion. DraftKings has embedded itself in professional sports, offering sports betting, daily fantasy games, or both through the National Football League, National Hockey League, PGA Tour, Ultimate Fighting Championship, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, and NASCAR.

In March, DraftKings clinched one of Massachusetts’ initial online sports betting licenses, bringing its sportsbook offerings to its home state, where it employs more than 1,300 people locally. “The Commonwealth has been DraftKings’ home for over a decade, so launching legalized mobile sports betting here was an especially meaningful milestone,” Robins says.

Along with his cofounders, Matt Kalish and Paul Liberman, Robins started DraftKings from a Watertown apartment. The company, which was incorporated in 2011, began by offering daily fantasy games and expanded into gambling as states legalized sports betting.

He guided the company through early legal challenges — including a Supreme Court case that opened the door to legal sports betting — and fierce competition, particularly from New York rival FanDuel. He also helped take the company public in 2020. In 2021, the company launched DraftKings Marketplace, a hub to buy, sell, and trade NFTs, or non-fungible tokens — digital assets based on the same technology that underpins cryptocurrency.

Robins is an active angel investor, backing ventures such as digital lottery company Jackpot.com, collectibles firm WAX Insurance, fintech company Grow Credit, and intelligence and market research company Sports Innovation Lab. In 2021, he made a $100,000 donation that led to the opening of a new school in Pakistan for the children of Afghan refugees.

He is also a strategic adviser at Drive by DraftKings, the company’s venture capital firm that has backed sports-tech and entertainment firms such as Boston-based wearables company Whoop.

Prior to founding DraftKings, Robins worked in marketing and analytics at VistaPrint, a design and marketing company, and in marketing and analysis at Capital One.

Now all eyes are on online gambling.

“Through the collaborative support of local lawmakers and the Massachusetts Gaming Commission,” Robins says, “Massachusetts is in an outstanding position to fully enjoy and realize the benefits of mobile sports betting technology.”