San Francisco Giants v Chicago Cubs (Draftkings)

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DraftKings and Flutter dip after Illinois unveils surprise tax hike targeting top sportsbooks

A new wagering fee could push effective tax rates above 50% for the betting giants.

6/2/25 8:46AM

DraftKings shares dropped more than 5% Monday morning, while FanDuel parent Flutter Entertainment slipped 3%, after Illinois quietly passed a new budget over the weekend that tacks on steep new fees for high-volume sportsbook operators. The new legislation, part of the state’s FY26 budget, introduces a tiered tax structure that charges $0.25 per wager up to 20 million bets annually and $0.50 for every bet beyond that.

The update effectively singles out DraftKings and FanDuel, since they are the only two operators that surpass that threshold in Illinois. The move could push their effective tax rates from about 35% to over 50%, just a year after the last increase from 15%.

Analysts estimate the changes could cut $70 million to $80 million from DraftKings’ annual EBITDA by 2026, or about 6% of its bottom line, with FanDuel also facing a nine-figure hit. They also warned that passing the cost on to customers or slashing promotions could hurt competitiveness against smaller rivals.

Prior to the dip, DraftKings shares were up about 1% over the past year while Flutter jumped 34% in the same time frame.

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OpenAI’s ARR reached over $20 billion in 2025, CFO says

Sam Altman’s $500 billion artificial intelligence behemoth hit a major financial milestone last year, according to a new blog post over the weekend from OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar, as the company confirmed it had hit a more than $20 billion annual revenue run rate at the end of 2025.

Elsewhere in the blog post, Friar spent time addressing the company’s shifting goals, referencing plans to “close the distance between where intelligence is advancing and how individuals, companies, and countries actually adopt and use it.” As has become customary in the AI company press release genre, the CFO was also keen to tout the unending growth of the business, writing:

“Both our Weekly Active User (WAU) and Daily Active User (DAU) figures continue to produce all-time highs. This growth is driven by a flywheel across compute, frontier research, products, and monetization.”
“Compute grew 3X year over year or 9.5X from 2023 to 2025: 0.2 GW in 2023, 0.6 GW in 2024, and ~1.9 GW in 2025.”

And, perhaps most importantly for current backers and those keeping an eye on the private company before its rumored mega IPO:

“Revenue followed the same curve growing 3X year over year, or 10X from 2023 to 2025: $2B ARR in 2023, $6B in 2024, and $20B+ in 2025. This is never-before-seen growth at such scale.”

That latest figure has certainly set tongues in the tech world wagging, just as the company announced it would begin rolling out ads to free and ChatGPT Go users. It also puts the chatbot giant a fair way ahead of competitors like Anthropic, the company behind Claude.

OpenAI Anthropic ARR race — Sherwood News

A business that scales with the value of intelligence

“Both our Weekly Active User (WAU) and Daily Active User (DAU) figures continue to produce all-time highs. This growth is driven by a flywheel across compute, frontier research, products, and monetization.”
“Compute grew 3X year over year or 9.5X from 2023 to 2025: 0.2 GW in 2023, 0.6 GW in 2024, and ~1.9 GW in 2025.”

And, perhaps most importantly for current backers and those keeping an eye on the private company before its rumored mega IPO:

“Revenue followed the same curve growing 3X year over year, or 10X from 2023 to 2025: $2B ARR in 2023, $6B in 2024, and $20B+ in 2025. This is never-before-seen growth at such scale.”

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