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DraftKings and other sportsbooks had a terrible December

Favored football teams are winning more games than usual, which is bad news for sports betting stocks.

Matt Phillips

Sports gambling stocks like DraftKings and FanDuel Flutter Entertainment had a rough run in December. Here’s a look.

The downturn stems, in part, from the fact that an unusual number of favored NFL teams actually won their games, says analyst Jason Bender of JMP securities.

In a note published Tuesday, he wrote:

“U.S. bettors traditionally wager on favorites and game outcomes in the NFL; therefore, when the betting favorites win, books lose. The trend was front and center during the current NFL season as bettors experienced one of the most favorable winning percentages for outright favorites in history. Said another way, operators, such as and FanDuel, held unlucky in 4Q24, and we believe will miss guidance and consensus estimates for the quarter.”

Flutter said the same on Tuesday, cutting its guidance while lamenting that this “period of very unfavorable US sports results” caused a hit of about $260 million to the company’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization from November 12 through year-end.

The platform, as well as DraftKings, MGM, and Caesar’s, are all due to report Q4 numbers in the coming weeks.

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Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

  • Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

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