DraftKings Plan Recruitment Drive For New Las Vegas Office
DraftKings have made a major move into the Las Vegas region after it leased office space from WeWork with the capacity for 300 employees.
Previously, the fantasy esports and fantasy sports outfit has opened a much smaller operation in the city which saw around a dozen employees working in the offices from 2018, although the workforce has increased since then to around 70 at present. This new workspace is much larger, and DraftKings workers have already transferred into the new space in readiness for expansion in 2020.
DraftKings have confirmed that as part of the move, they are seeking to employ more than 200 additional workers to work at the offices over the course of next year.
[cta-box postid=”14445″]“Iconic City”
Speaking about the move on a media tour of the new facilities, the president and co-founder of DraftKings, Matt Kalish, stated;
“This is an iconic city when it comes to sports betting. It’s been the hub of all that activity in our country for many decades. We see ourselves looking to integrate as deeply as possible into the community.”
“The opportunities with sports betting keep opening up nationwide. We want to make sure we continue to lead the pack and, to do that, we need to invest in Las Vegas and take advantage of some of the great talent that’s here in this market.”
Amongst the people that DraftKings have employed in Vegas was Johnny Avello, a former director at Wynn Las Vegas sports book and who made the move to DraftKings in 2018 to work in the same position for the Boston-based firm.
“Finding this location, it’s been in the works for a long time and, to me, it’s perfect,” stated Avello. “Town Square has great amenities and this is a great work environment. It’s also close to the airport for people who need to get in and out. Anywhere where sports betting is legal, we’re looking to be in that market.”
Plans for Expansion
The Vegas expansion is just part of DraftKings extensive plans for 2020 to grow the company. After merging last year with Diamond Eagle Acquisition and SBTech, the company expects to go public on the stock market some time during the first two quarters of 2020.
In addition, the move into Vegas is seen as a way in which the company can start to tap into the lucrative Nevada sports betting, esports betting and fantasy esports markets.
In Nevada, companies that do not possess offices where players can sign up in person, rather than remotely at home, cannot hold a state gaming license to offer products online. By opening offices and expanding them in Las Vegas, DraftKings can now apply for a gaming license in Nevada, a move which Kalish himself confirmed.
“We’re a digital company, so we don’t have a casino in Las Vegas where people can go [to] sign up. We’ve never had an urgency to go get a [Nevada] license because we didn’t have a way for consumers to get access to our product. We need to kind of solve that. We’d need a retail deal and we’re working on it.”
Image courtesy of Las Vegas Review-Journal
Since: August 10, 2015
