Jason Robins: DraftKings Founder, CEO and Chairman

The Short Answer

Jason D. Robins is the co-founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of DraftKings Inc. According to the company’s March 26, 2026 proxy statement, he co-founded DraftKings in December 2011, served as its chief executive from the start, and has held the combined CEO and Chairman roles since April 2020. The same document describes him as overseeing strategy and operations while also driving financings and strategic initiatives.

This profile covers his professional record only: the career that preceded DraftKings, the company milestones that took place during his tenure, and the governance structure around his roles. It relies on SEC filings, DraftKings’ investor relations pages, press releases and reputable media, and it is current as of October 2026. It does not evaluate him as a person or predict anything about his future role.

Career Before DraftKings

Robins attended Duke University, where, according to the proxy statement, he received a B.S. in Economics and Computer Science and a minor in mathematics. Sports Business Journal’s profile of him dates the degree to 2003 and lists his first role as marketing and analysis at Capital One from 2003 to 2008, followed by marketing and analytics at Vistaprint from 2008 to 2012.

The company’s origin story, as reported by CNBC in 2018, is that Robins and his two co-founders, Matthew Kalish and Paul Liberman, were colleagues at Vistaprint and built the early product while still holding their full-time jobs. The proxy statement confirms that all three co-founded the company in December 2011. In the early period, the founders’ roles were divided: Liberman served as chief technology officer of the original DraftKings entity from 2011 to 2013, and Kalish became chief revenue officer in 2014, per the proxy statement.

The original product was daily fantasy sports. DraftKings’ later growth into sports betting and online casino, described in our profile of How DraftKings makes money, followed the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that repealed the federal sports betting ban, according to Sports Business Journal’s timeline. The company’s own biography of Robins says he has led efforts to work with policy makers and regulators to pass fantasy sports, sports betting and online casino legislation.

The Record: Roles and Milestones

The milestones below are those documented in primary sources. In each, Robins was the company’s chief executive, and the proxy statement describes his role as overseeing strategy and operations.

The 2017 merger attempt is documented by the Federal Trade Commission. The agency issued an administrative complaint on June 19, 2017, alleging that a DraftKings–FanDuel merger would violate antitrust law; Reuters reported that the agency said the combined company would control more than 90% of the U.S. market for paid daily fantasy sports contests. The companies terminated the agreement on July 13, 2017, and the FTC dismissed its complaint without prejudice, noting it was not deciding the matter on its merits.

The 2020 listing took place through a special purpose acquisition company, Diamond Eagle Acquisition Corp. The 10-K describes the transaction as a combination in which DraftKings merged with the SPAC and acquired SBTech (Global) Limited, with the shares trading on Nasdaq from April 24, 2020. Harry Sloan, who the proxy says took DraftKings public in 2020 as chairman and CEO of Eagle Equity Partners’ SPACs, has served on DraftKings’ board since April 2020 and is its Vice Chairman.

The financial scale of the company changed substantially over this period. The company’s 10-K for fiscal 2022 reports revenue of $614.5 million in 2020, $1,296.0 million in 2021 and $2,240.5 million in 2022. Our recomputation follows.

where all figures are reported revenue in $ millions for fiscal years ended December 31, and CAGR is the compound annual growth rate. These figures describe the company, not a judgment on any individual’s performance, and they include the effect of the Golden Nugget Online Gaming acquisition in May 2022.

Governance: What the Structure Means

The proxy statement sets out three features of DraftKings’ governance that matter for anyone reading about its leadership. First, the CEO and Chairman roles are combined. The company says the chief executive is, as a company executive, in the best position to identify emerging issues and propose board agendas, and it states that it does not currently have a lead independent director.

Second, voting power is concentrated. DraftKings has two classes of common stock: each Class A share carries one vote and each Class B share carries ten votes. As of the March 19, 2026 record date there were 495,742,804 Class A shares and 393,013,951 Class B shares outstanding. The proxy says Robins is the beneficial owner of all the Class B shares and that he possesses approximately 88% of the total voting power. It adds that the election of the director nominees and the other proposals were assured regardless of how other shareholders voted, because of his stated intention to vote for them.

Third, the company qualifies as a controlled company under Nasdaq listing standards, because more than 50% of the voting power for electing directors is held by one individual. That status would allow the company to skip certain independence requirements. The proxy states that DraftKings nonetheless has a majority-independent board, with eight of eleven directors identified as independent, plus a compensation committee and a nominating and corporate governance committee made up solely of independent directors.

These are structural facts, not judgments. They show that decisions about strategy, deals and the board rest with a founder who both leads management and holds the largest share of votes, and that shareholders reading company filings should understand where formal control sits.

The Co-Founders and the Board

Robins is one of three co-founders who still sit on the board, and the proxy statement shows how the founders’ roles have shifted. Paul Liberman moved from President, Global Technology and Product to President, Operations in November 2025, and Matthew Kalish and the company mutually agreed on November 6, 2025 that he would transition out of his role as President, DraftKings North America effective March 31, 2026. Under a transition agreement he steps down from his officer and employee roles but remains a director.

For context on how another large operator handles leadership change, Flutter’s CEO transition was announced by Flutter in August 2026 as a planned succession effective October 1, 2026, and Banijay Gaming’s leadership shows how leadership was organized after a combination of two operators. DraftKings’ structure is different in kind: its chief executive is a founder who controls the vote, so succession and control questions are governed by the share structure described above rather than by a conventional board-led process. The proxy does not describe a succession plan, and this profile does not speculate about one.

Limits of This Profile

This profile is deliberately narrow. It covers professional roles and documented company events only, and it does not assess how well anyone performed, comment on private life, or report rumors. Several limits apply to what the sources can tell us.

The biography in the proxy statement is the company’s own description, written by DraftKings. Facts about the pre-DraftKings career come from Sports Business Journal and CNBC rather than from a filing, so the exact dates reflect their reporting. Revenue growth figures describe the company as a whole and include acquisitions, so they should not be read as a measure of one person’s contribution. The 2017 antitrust episode is described using the FTC’s own dismissal order, which states it was not a decision on the merits.

The roles described here can change. The proxy statement is dated March 26, 2026, and the most recent confirmation of Robins’ title in this profile is an October 19, 2026 SBC Americas interview that describes him as co-founder and CEO. Board seats such as his directorship at Extend, Inc. are listed as of the proxy date. Nothing here is investment advice.

Key Facts

The table gathers the facts above in one place. Class B shares are the high-vote class held by Robins, controlled company is the Nasdaq status described above, and the proxy statement is the annual document DraftKings files with the SEC before its shareholder meeting.

Related Analysis

For the business he leads, read How DraftKings makes money and DraftKings’ Q2 2026 results. For how the products earn money, see our explainer on how sportsbooks make money. For other leadership profiles, see Flutter’s CEO transition and Banijay Gaming’s leadership. The next documents to watch for leadership changes are DraftKings’ 2027 proxy statement and its filings with the SEC.

Sources & References

• DraftKings Inc. — Definitive proxy statement (Schedule 14A), March 26, 2026 (SEC)
• DraftKings Inc. — Jason Robins, board member biography (investor relations)
• Sports Business Journal — Jason Robins profile and career timeline
• CNBC — DraftKings CEO Jason Robins: quit day job for a successful start-up, May 30, 2018
• Federal Trade Commission — Order dismissing complaint, DraftKings and FanDuel, July 14, 2017
• Reuters — FanDuel, DraftKings scrap troubled merger, July 13, 2017
• DraftKings Inc. — Annual report on Form 10-K for fiscal 2024 (SEC)
• DraftKings Inc. — Annual report on Form 10-K for fiscal 2022 (archive copy)
• DraftKings Inc. — DraftKings completes acquisition of Jackpocket, May 23, 2024
• SBC Americas — SBC Leaders: Jason Robins on building DraftKings, October 19, 2026