# DraftKings Approved a 30 Million Dollar Marketing Deal With Its Own Departing President > Weeks before Matthew Kalish stepped down as DraftKings president after 14 years, the company signed off on a marketing contract worth up to 30 million dollars with HardScope, a media platform Kalish owns outright, an arrangement that only surfaced publicly this month and is now drawing questions from corporate governance experts. - Source: Media Broker Daily - Canonical URL: https://news.mediabroker.org/article/draftkings-approved-a-30-million-dollar-marketing-deal-with-its-own-departing-president - Author: Media Broker Daily Editorial - Section: Marketing - Published: 2026-08-28T13:33:19.335Z - Updated: 2026-08-28T13:33:19.335Z - Tags: DraftKings, insider deal, marketing spend, corporate governance, influencer marketing, sports betting --- DraftKings cofounder Matthew Kalish left his role as company president in March 2026 after 14 years, but before he walked out the door, the company he helped build agreed to route as much as 30 million dollars in marketing spending through a firm he owns entirely himself. The company, called HardScope, brokers promotional deals between DraftKings and podcast hosts and influencers, and it earns a commission on every dollar it places, meaning the more DraftKings spends through Kalish's company, the more Kalish's company makes. ## A deal signed on the way out The arrangement did not appear out of nowhere. DraftKings and HardScope first signed a modest agreement in June 2025 capped at 600,000 dollars, at a point when Kalish was still serving as president. He launched HardScope that December, while still holding his executive role at DraftKings. By January 2026, the relationship had scaled dramatically, with a new agreement authorizing up to 30 million dollars in payments over three years. Kalish's formal departure followed two months later, in March. The whole arrangement only became public knowledge in August, once DraftKings disclosed it in a regulatory filing, well after the terms had already been locked in. ## How the commission structure works Under the deal, HardScope can collect a commission of up to 14 percent on the marketing dollars it places on DraftKings' behalf. That structure ties HardScope's earnings directly to how much DraftKings spends through it, an incentive that sits uneasily next to the fact that the firm's owner helped run DraftKings for over a decade and negotiated at least part of this arrangement while still on the inside. ## A governance expert calls the setup a red flag Jesse Fried, a corporate governance scholar at Harvard Law School, pointed to DraftKings' ownership structure as the reason a deal like this can move forward with limited friction. Chief executive and cofounder Jason Robins controls roughly 88 percent of the company's voting power through a dual class share structure, concentrating decision making authority in a way that leaves little room for outside shareholders to push back on transactions that benefit people close to leadership. Fried described that concentration of control as a big red flag, the kind of setup where insider deals can clear internal approval without the scrutiny a more evenly distributed shareholder base might apply. ## An exit package on top of the contract The marketing deal was not the only benefit attached to Kalish's departure. As part of his exit, he also received 18 million dollars in accelerated stock awards, a payout layered on top of whatever HardScope stands to earn from its multi year marketing contract with his former employer. Taken together, the stock award and the commission based marketing deal describe two separate financial threads tied to the same executive's exit, both approved by the company he was leaving. ## The timing does the arrangement no favors The disclosure lands at an uncomfortable moment for DraftKings financially. The company's stock has fallen 44 percent over the past year, and its most recent quarter included a 67 million dollar loss, even as the company spent 320 million dollars on sales and marketing in that same quarter. Against that backdrop, a multi year, commission generating marketing contract awarded to a departing executive's personal venture is the kind of detail that invites questions about whether marketing dollars are being allocated purely for return, or partly to soften the exit of a longtime cofounder. ## What it means for how marketing spend gets trusted Marketing budgets already face pressure to prove their return, and deals like this one make that case harder rather than easier. Routing influencer and podcast spending through a firm owned by a departing insider blurs the line between an arm's length vendor relationship and something closer to self dealing, even if every dollar is later shown to have been spent effectively. Disclosing the arrangement only after the terms were finalized, rather than at the time the contract was signed, does little to build the kind of transparency that keeps both marketing spend and investor confidence credible. --- Originally published by Media Broker Daily. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://news.mediabroker.org/article/draftkings-approved-a-30-million-dollar-marketing-deal-with-its-own-departing-president.