FanDuel CCO: “When, not if” when it comes to legalizing sports gambling nationwide

Fanduel’s Mike Raffensperger joins TheStreet to discuss how he it will be when, not if, states like California and Texas legalizing sports gambling.

Transcript

00:00 Texas, California, some of the biggest, most populated states in this country, they say

00:03 this is not a world that we want to touch.

00:06 They've had different initiatives to put it in front of the hands of voters.

00:08 How laser focused are you to try and still encourage the pathways to open up states like

00:15 that?

00:16 Or is the focus to say, hey, look at all the states that do allow it, let's double down

00:19 and make sure our core competency and products of those states is offered to the people who

00:23 can get the product?

00:24 Well, the answer is both.

00:25 Like I said, big company, over 3,000 full-time employees growing all the time.

00:29 So we're laser focused on maximizing opportunity in the states that are legal and laser focused

00:33 on our government affairs, regulatory partnership groups that is opening up new markets all

00:38 the time.

00:39 And ultimately, we're really confident that it's not necessarily you can predict exactly

00:44 what month or what year exactly when those states were open, but places like Texas, California,

00:49 many other states around the United States, it's more a matter of when as opposed to if.

00:54 And we're very actively involved in lawmaking efforts, lobbying efforts around the country,

00:59 whether that's through a legislative process or bringing it directly to voters for ballot

01:02 initiatives.

01:03 We're intimately involved along with many of others in the industry alongside DraftKings

01:07 and others and opening this up where you have common sense legislation, things that constituents

01:14 want, a black market that's currently being run underground to the tunes of billions of

01:18 dollars that isn't protecting underage gambling, isn't protecting integrity concerns, isn't

01:23 protecting responsible gaming initiatives like we do.

01:26 And on top of that, it's a great source of tax revenues for municipalities and states

01:30 all over the country.

01:31 We think it's common sense legislation.

01:32 Obviously, I'm a little biased, but we're very actively involved in that process around

01:36 the country.

01:37 Is there one particular state that's a bit of a white whale?

01:38 Yeah, look, there's nothing quite like California.

01:41 It's the largest state economy.

01:45 It'll be a huge marketplace for us.

01:48 We're in active conversations with lawmakers, with tribal interests, with others where we

01:52 understand there's a constituency.

01:54 I think of partnership it'll take to bring that state online, but I'm confident that

02:00 over the time horizon that'll happen.

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