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