Shares of DraftKings exploded on Tuesday after news dropped that billionaire investor George Soros bought 2.7 million shares of DKNG last week through an investment vehicle managed by his fund.
DraftKings shares closed at $26.30 on Tuesday, up 7.5%, one of its best days since going public on April 23.
DraftKings filed details of the biggest players in a cap table on May 6, but things didn’t take off until Monday’s report that it was Soros’ vehicle, Quantum Partners, that now owns 2.7 million shares. The 89-year-old Soros is one of the most successful investors in American history. With a net worth of $8.3 billion, he’s the 56th-richest person in the U.S. today, according to Forbes.
Until now, Soros' most noted indirect gambling play is his significant stakes in Caesars Entertainment and Vici Properties, which owns the land that Caesars casinos are on and leases back to the company. Soros also owns shares of Eldorado Resorts, which took a 20% stake in William Hill last year in exchange for using the company to get access to host mobile sports betting sites in the states Eldorado has access to.
The filing, for the first time, revealed the stakes of other owners in sports.
The largest chunk is owned by New England Patriots owners Robert and Jonathan Kraft with 3.53 million shares, which is now worth $92.9 million. Madison Square Garden owns 1.47 million shares, which translates to $38.7 million.
The WWE owns 263,546 shares, according to the filing. Legends Hospitality, which is owned by the Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees, owns 194,867 shares.
Major League Baseball sold its stake of DraftKings for an undisclosed sum two years ago just before DraftKings went into the sports betting space in August 2018. Sources said league officials didn’t believe it could own a piece of a sportsbook while conducting games that were being bet on.
The NHL actually still owns a piece of DraftKings — 487,169 shares worth $12.8 million — through its marketing and licensing arm, NHL Enterprises, as does Disney, which owns ESPN.
A 6% stake in DraftKings for Disney, which acquired the stake along with its acquisition of 20th Century Fox, is now worth $491.8 million.
The bump means the stake of DraftKings CEO Jason Robins is now worth $222.3 million. Original investor Ryan Moore, who put in the first $1 million in the company, now owns $284.2 million worth of DraftKings stock.
Former Stanford baseball player John Salter, co-founder of The Raine Group, has a stake now worth $657 million on paper. The largest shareholder is SB Tech founder Shalom McKenzie, who owns 11.1% of the company. His shares are worth $908.5 million.
Famed options trader Jon Najarian told The Action Network that he noticed an unusually large volume of options today on DraftKings that signal “people are betting on something very big happening very soon.” Most are betting that the stock hits $30 a share by Friday, but some are even betting it hits $40.
DraftKings, which will have its first earnings call on Friday, just launched a sportsbook in Colorado on May 1, marking the seventh state where it has an online sportsbook.
