DraftKings CEO Robins Calls Fortune Report on Kalish Marketing Deal a ‘Total Hit Piece,’ Describes Prediction-Market Stock ‘Disconnect’

DraftKings CEO Jason Robins, interviewed by Front Office Sports editor-in-chief Dan Roberts at the outlet’s Asset Class event in New York on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, dismissed an August Fortune report about a marketing arrangement with departing cofounder Matthew Kalish as a “total hit piece” and said the company’s business “certainly isn’t struggling.”

“That was a total hit piece, so obviously they’re gonna throw that in there,” Robins said when asked about the Fortune story, which was headlined “Exclusive: Struggling DraftKings awards $30 million marketing contract to cofounder who recently stepped down.” He added: “Listen, they can put whatever they want in the headline. As you know there’s not much oversight of those things so I don’t know what they’re basing that on other than our stock being down I guess but business itself certainly isn’t struggling. We’re doing great,” according to coverage of the interview.

Robins describes a prediction-markets “disconnect”

In the same conversation, Robins described what he characterized as a disconnect he said he had not encountered in six years as a public company: DraftKings is building a prediction markets business, yet in his telling its shares move as though it were not. He framed the pattern as his own observation, not an established market mechanism.

“It’s getting beaten up on predictions, and we like predictions, so it’s this bizarre thing where we see a headline that is positive on predictions, and everyone in the company celebrates and our stock goes down,” he said. “Or we see like the Ninth Circuit rules against predictions, and we’re like, ugh, and the stock pops and so it’s this weird disconnect between us feeling happy about things or not happy, and the stock having this completely opposite reaction, which is a first.”

DraftKings launched its prediction markets product, DraftKings Predictions, in December 2025 as a standalone mobile app and web product that allows eligible customers to trade on real-world outcomes, according to the company’s 2026 proxy statement.

The Ninth Circuit ruling Robins referenced

The court decision Robins alluded to was issued Aug. 28, 2026, when a Ninth Circuit panel in KalshiEX, LLC v. Assad affirmed in part a Nevada district court’s order dissolving a preliminary injunction that had blocked the Nevada Gaming Control Board from enforcing state gaming laws against Kalshi’s sports-related event contracts, and remanded the case in part. The panel held that Kalshi had not shown a likelihood that the Commodity Exchange Act preempts Nevada’s gaming regulations as applied to its sports event contracts, concluding those contracts are likely not “swaps” under the statute. The panel remanded for the district court to consider Nevada’s challenges to Kalshi’s election contracts, which the lower court had not analyzed, according to the published opinion.

The case arose after the Nevada Gaming Control Board sent Kalshi a cease-and-desist letter in March 2025 asserting that its sports event contracts constituted an unlicensed sports pool. Kalshi, a CFTC-registered designated contract market, argued the CFTC held exclusive regulatory authority over the contracts. Judge Ryan D. Nelson wrote the majority opinion; Judge Kenneth K. Lee concurred, noting that a statutory “Special Rule” provision gave him pause but that the existing CFTC regulation barring gaming contracts controls for now.

What the proxy shows about the Hardscope arrangement

The Fortune report Robins criticized concerned DraftKings’ arrangements with FaZe Media, Inc., doing business as Hardscope, a company Kalish wholly owns and leads as CEO. DraftKings’ proxy statement, filed with the SEC, lays out the terms directly. Under a Consulting Services Agreement dated Feb. 17, 2026, certain DraftKings subsidiaries have the right, but not the obligation, to secure personal services and name, image and likeness rights of certain talent for promotional campaigns. Aggregate service fees under the agreement may not exceed $30.0 million over its three-year term, and Hardscope’s commission may not exceed 14% of the related service fee. As of the proxy’s date, the company had entered into one statement of work under the agreement but had not incurred any fees under it.

The proxy also discloses a separate, earlier arrangement: on June 13, 2025, company subsidiaries agreed to pay Hardscope fees capped at $600,000 for similar promotional services, of which $150,000 was incurred during fiscal year 2025. The audit committee approved both arrangements under the company’s related person transaction policy, the filing states.

Kalish’s transition and DraftKings’ voting structure

Per the proxy, Kalish and the company mutually agreed on Nov. 6, 2025 that he would transition out of his role as President, DraftKings North America, effective March 31, 2026, stepping down from all officer and employee roles at the company and its subsidiaries while remaining a director on the board.

The governance backdrop to the criticism Fortune reported is also documented in the filing. DraftKings has a dual-class share structure in which Class A shares carry one vote each and Class B shares carry ten votes each. Robins is the beneficial owner of all outstanding Class B shares and possesses approximately 88% of the company’s total voting power, which qualifies DraftKings as a “controlled company” under NASDAQ listing standards and exempts it from certain independence requirements, though the company states it nonetheless maintains a majority-independent board and independent compensation and nominating committees.

Asked about Kalish at the Tuesday event, Robins said he no longer controls what his former colleague says. “When he worked for us, I could tell him what to do, and I can’t anymore,” he said, adding that he believes Kalish’s views come from his own experience.