Three Boston-area work colleagues in an effort to cure their entrepreneurial bug decided in ’11 to develop a daily fantasy sports site called DraftKings. Today, the company is valued at nearly $1B and is arguably the most recognizable platform of its kind. However, DraftKings co-Founder & CRO MATT KALISH says he and his partners, JASON ROBINS and PAUL LIBERMAN, are not blinded by success. “We are all very reticent that we need to stay focused and humble,” said Kalish. “We just need to keep doing what got us here.” That being said, he acknowledges the venture has exceeded even his wildest expectations. Kalish: “We are very pleased with the momentum that we have seen over the last few years. We never would have thought three years ago that we would be doing big deals with ESPN and Fox.”
JUST WYNN, BABY: This weekend we are holding our Fantasy Baseball World Championship at the Wynn in Las Vegas. We will be hosting 80 of our players for four days with a lot of different excursions around town. On Friday, we are going to be riding the dune buggies; people are going golfing; some are going to the spa; and we will go out for a good dinner. We just want to make sure that everyone who qualified is having a really good time.
ONE IN A MILLION: Saturday is the big day for our guys. That will be when everyone will be very focused on sports as they are determining what lineups to put in for the championship. Everyone will be following the baseball news very closely to predict who is going to do well and who is not. It is a very exciting, condensed format where when the day starts everyone is equal, and by the end, things shake out and whoever came up with the best lineup will win $1 million. It is always fun finding the next millionaire at DraftKings and giving them the big check.
THE GOOD WIFE: Sunday is a travel day. We fly out really early on Sunday and finally get to go home and see our families. I live on the South Shore of Boston in a town called Hingham with my wife and two daughters. I am working a lot trying to make something of DraftKings, and there are a lot of long hours and weekends. My wife is very understanding and is quite kind in the way she pulls almost all of the weight. She is the CEO at home. Our family does pretty much the same thing every Sunday. We live right by the water, so we hang out outdoors for a little bit and then come together for dinner. We love to get a beach day whenever we can. My wife’s family and mine live really close. We try to bring the kids over to see their grandparents often.
MOVIE NIGHT: My girls are really young -- 2 and 5 – and they usually are all tuckered out and in bed by 7:00pm ET. After we put the kids to bed, my wife and I have a couple of shows on Netflix we try to watch. It gives us a little down time. We have a lot going on at work right now with different league and team deals, as well as our partnerships that have us traveling a lot. I like to take some time to mentally prepare for whatever big meetings are coming up that week. Sunday night is a good time to wrap your head around that.
