Posted on: March 22, 2023, 08:36 a.m.
Last update on: March 22, 2023, 08:36 a.m.
DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG) today opened its Las Vegas office, the sportsbook operator’s second-largest national branch after its Boston headquarters.
The 90,000-square-foot space located in Matter Real Estate Group’s mixed-use UnCommons will eventually be home to up to 1,000 gaming company employees and the operator is expected to control nearly all of the space in an entire building there.
The Las Vegas office is comprised of more than 130 dedicated sports trade desks surrounded by full media walls customized in a stadium seating arrangement, a fully equipped 7,500 square foot cafeteria and event space, a casino training ground event space, a 500-square-foot foot interactive putt-view putting green, public and private outdoor spaces, and rooms for moms,” according to a statement.
DraftKings announced plans for the office in the Southwest Las Vegas area in October 2021.
DraftKings Still Not Accepting Bets in Nevada
The statement doesn’t spell out exactly what roles will be filled at the Sin City office or how long it will take to ramp up to 1,000 employees at the location, which is just 15 minutes from the Strip.
Currently, the sports betting giant is not authorized to place bets in Nevada. The same goes for rival FanDuel and it’s not immediately clear when that will change. Still, the carrier isn’t shy about its desire for access to Nevada and has taken some PR moves along those lines.
DraftKings “established a multi-year agreement as Title Sponsor of the UNLV Game Innovation Center and opened the new DraftKings Game Innovation Studio at UNLV, giving DraftKings access to local talent and technology,” as stated in the statement.
The gaming company’s acquisition of Golden Nugget Online Gaming (NASDAQ:GNOG) could help the operator break into the US gaming mecca by applying the company’s brand to Golden retail sportsbooks Nugget in downtown Las Vegas and Laughlin.
DraftKings Las Vegas offices open after layoff announcement
The DraftKings Las Vegas office opened about seven weeks after the company announced it would lay off 140 employees, or about 3.5% of its workforce, in an effort to cut costs. The company did not mention in the aforementioned press release whether or not some of those roles might be replaced in Las Vegas or whether affected employees will be offered the opportunity to move to Nevada for new jobs. However, the statement included other interesting details.
“DraftKings’ Las Vegas office will also provide amenity spaces for employees, including an on-site barber and beauty salon, and a nail and pedicure salon,” the press release stated.
Those are the kinds of services that some tech companies (recently aggressive downsizing) are eliminating in an effort to prepare for tough economic times. In January, Google parent Alphabet announced that 31 massage therapists will be sent packing as part of a broader set of staff reductions. Since taking over Twitter, Elon Musk has cut perks like free lunches and travel perks in a bid to make the social media company profitable.
