{"id":266778,"date":"2023-03-29T17:38:15","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T22:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=266778"},"modified":"2023-03-29T17:38:15","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T22:38:15","slug":"draftkings-continues-lavish-compensation-for-ceo-robins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-continues-lavish-compensation-for-ceo-robins\/","title":{"rendered":"DraftKings Spent $2M on Jet, Security for CEO Robins, Boosted Pay as Stock Stumbled"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG) spent nearly $2 million on private jet and security expenses for co-founder and CEO Jason Robins while significantly boosting his equity-based compensation even as the shares plunged.<\/p>\n

\"DraftKings
DraftKings founders from left Matt Kalish, Jason Robins and Paul Liberman. They were granted more than $120 million in stock-based pay last year as the shares tumbled. (Image: Inc.com<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a recently published Schedule 14A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the gaming company reveals it spent $968,900 last year on security for Robins and his family and $975,191 on private jet costs.<\/p>\n

\n

The Boston-based sportsbook operator also granted Robins $14.32 million in restricted stock and more than $29 million in performance-based equity grants. Robins\u2019 total compensation surged 238%<\/a> from 2021 to 2022 despite the fact that the stock shed 58.54% of its value last year — far outpacing the 33.61% decline endured by the Nasdaq-100 Index.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

One interpretation of that lavish compensation package is that the $1 annual salary<\/a> drawn by Robins and co-founders Matthew Kalish and Paul Liberman is no more than a public relations mirage. Last year, Kalish and Liberman each received roughly $40 million in equity-based pay,\u201d according to the regulatory document.<\/p>\n

DraftKings Reimbursed Robins for Super Bowl Expenses<\/h2>\n

Creating an online kerfuffle was the following nugget from the SEC filing: DraftKings reimbursed Robins $131,607 for \u201cthe purchase of game day tickets, special events, travel and accommodations for Mr.\u00a0Robins\u2019 family members during the week\u2019s activities\u201d incurred at the 2022 Super Bowl.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The security benefits Robins receives may also be a source of consternation among market participants. While DraftKings is undoubtedly his \u201cbaby,\u201d<\/a> it\u2019s debatable that financial markets perceive his importance to the gaming company as on par with Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway, Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook or the late Steve Jobs at Apple.<\/p>\n

To address significant safety concerns, including as a result of specific threats, the Board has approved personal security measures for Mr. Robins and his family pursuant to an independent security study undertaken by a third-party consultant. We require these security measures for Mr. Robins and his family, and, given his importance to the Company, believe that the scope and costs of these measures are appropriate and necessary. The Board will continue to evaluate these measures annually,\u201d according to the filing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The \u2018significant safety concerns\u2019 weren\u2019t detailed in the SEC document.<\/p>\n

Other DraftKings Compensation Issues<\/h2>\n

DraftKings\u2019 compensation committee is comprised of Ryan Moore, Shalom Meckenzie and Steven Moore. Although Meckenzie isn\u2019t on the slate of directors up for reelection this year, the Israeli billionaire is the founder of SBTech \u2013 the company that was part of DraftKings\u2019 2020 reverse merger. He\u2019s also been an avid seller<\/a> of DraftKings equity in recent years.<\/p>\n

DraftKings\u2019 compensation committee outsourced a study of pay comparables to independent consultant Frederic W. Cook & Co., which benchmarked pay and benefits at the sportsbook operator to a basket of 19 companies with emerging growth profiles.<\/p>\n

Thing is, just one company in the original basket — Churchill Downs — is a gaming operator. Second, it appears Light & Wonder and Penn Entertainment were only added to the group after Slack and Twitter were acquired and ceased being publicly traded entities. Still, persnickety investors might argue that using companies such as Etsy, Roku and Lyft, though not Uber, as gauges for DraftKings executive pay isn\u2019t germane.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year, DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG) spent nearly $2 million on private jet and security expenses for co-founder and CEO Jason Robins while significantly boosting his equity-based compensation even as the shares plunged. In a recently published Schedule 14A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the gaming company reveals it spent $968,900 last year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":166545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,19,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDraftKings Continues Lavish Compensation For CEO Robins<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"DraftKings CEO Robins, other founders received arguably excessive pay while stock declined.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-continues-lavish-compensation-for-ceo-robins\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DraftKings Continues Lavish Compensation For CEO Robins\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"DraftKings CEO Robins, other founders received arguably excessive pay while stock declined.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-continues-lavish-compensation-for-ceo-robins\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-29T22:38:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/dkng2-1024x576.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@etfgodfather\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-continues-lavish-compensation-for-ceo-robins\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-continues-lavish-compensation-for-ceo-robins\/\",\"name\":\"DraftKings Continues Lavish Compensation For CEO Robins\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-continues-lavish-compensation-for-ceo-robins\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-continues-lavish-compensation-for-ceo-robins\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/dkng2.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-29T22:38:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-29T22:38:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\"},\"description\":\"DraftKings CEO Robins, other founders received arguably excessive pay while stock declined.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-continues-lavish-compensation-for-ceo-robins\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-continues-lavish-compensation-for-ceo-robins\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/draftkings-continues-lavish-compensation-for-ceo-robins\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/dkng2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/dkng2.png\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080,\"caption\":\"DraftKings founders from left Matt Kalish, Jason Robins and Paul Liberman. 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