DraftKings Co-Founder Matt Kalish Explains Why the Betting Site Is Serious About NFTs

What makes an NFT valuable, whether fundamental tech specs matter, and why it’s important to see big names like DraftKings jumping in.

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ABOUT

DraftKings co-founder Matt Kalish became personally infatuated with non-fungible tokens (NFT) earlier this year. He’s now helping his sports betting giant navigate digital collectibles. It’s one of the few publicly traded companies with an on-platform NFT marketplace. This week on “Opinionated,” Danny, Ben and Anna learn more about the Bored Ape Yacht Club-owning president of DraftKings.

In a wide-ranging conversation, the hosts spar over what makes an NFT valuable, whether fundamental tech specs matter, and why it’s important to see big names like DraftKings jumping in. Non-fungible tokens are more than a phase, Kalish says: They’re a new way of trading and owning goods online.

Kalish, who has long loved sports collectibles, thinks NFTs are a natural evolution of the baseball card era. His platform is primed to take a hefty cut. It has signed up a long line of A-list athletes in some of their first NFT deals. That includes Tom Brady, the five-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback who sat through multiple sessions of digital autograph signing for DraftKings’ NFT debut.

The gang learns more about Kalish’s philosophy and DraftKings’ crypto plans. Is this a one-off act by the lucrative gaming outfit? Or is crypto here to stay, with NFTs only the vanguard? Listen to the latest edition of the “Opinionated” NFT series to find out.

This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is by Elision.

HOSTS

Dan Ilett

Dan Ilett writes on tech, money and energy. He advises business on digital strategy and technology messaging for large deals. He is founder of Erbut - an advisory company - and Greenbang - a smart technology research company.

Anna Baydakova

Anna writes about blockchain projects and regulation with a special focus on Eastern Europe and Russia. She is especially excited about stories on privacy, cybercrime, sanctions policies and censorship resistance of decentralized technologies.
She graduated from the Saint Petersburg State University and the Higher School of Economics in Russia and got her Master's degree at Columbia Journalism School in New York City.
She joined CoinDesk after years of writing for various Russian media, including the leading political outlet Novaya Gazeta.
Anna owns BTC and an NFT of sentimental value.

Danny Nelson

Danny is CoinDesk's managing editor for Data & Tokens. He formerly ran investigations for the Tufts Daily. At CoinDesk, his beats include (but are not limited to): federal policy, regulation, securities law, exchanges, the Solana ecosystem, smart money doing dumb things, dumb money doing smart things and tungsten cubes. He owns BTC, ETH and SOL tokens, as well as the LinksDAO NFT.

Benjamin Schiller

Benjamin Schiller is CoinDesk's managing editor for features and opinion. Previously, he was editor-in-chief at BREAKER Magazine and a staff writer at Fast Company. He holds some ETH, BTC and LINK.

Danny Bradbury

Danny Bradbury has been a professional writer since 1989, and has worked freelance since 1994. He covers technology for publications such as the Guardian.

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