The pandemic not only "scrambled this year's professional sports calendar," but also the financial models of DrafKings, "forcing the sports-betting company to revamp its forecasting," according to Kristin Broughton of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. For DraftKings, the changes to the sports calendar "have made it tough to forecast revenue." They required the company's finance team to "create a new model to estimate consumer behavior, looking at whether -- and how much -- customers would bet on multiple games at a time, a function of the rescheduled calendar." DraftKings CFO Jason Park said that "even seemingly small scheduling changes, such as moving a Sunday football game to Tuesday, are considered in quarterly financial models." Park said that he "assigned three different teams to tackle the problem." He added that one group "focused on customer acquisition and retention; another on the sports calendar and customer engagement over time," and the third "focused on the company's database of fantasy-sports customers and a variety of macroeconomic factors." Park said that a "critical piece of the puzzle" was "figuring out customers' favorite sports." As teams resumed playing, DraftKings introduced its '20 guidance in August, "predicting annual revenue of between $500 million and $540 million." The company then raised its guidance again last Friday, saying that it "expects to have $540 million to $560 million this year, or up to 30% more than a year earlier" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 11/20).
