BOSTON, March 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In honor of International Women’s Day, DraftKings Inc. (Nasdaq: DKNG) is undertaking a variety of internal and external efforts to support women entrepreneurs and small business owners throughout March, while also recognizing the day as an official company holiday for its 2,600 global employees. The company will donate up to $350,000 to several U.S. and global nonprofit organizations focused on empowering and aiding women entrepreneurs and women-founded small businesses, and as part of the company’s free Women’s History Month Sports Popularity Pool , which highlights the greatest athletes and moments in women’s sports. With an initial donation of $150,000, for every 25,000 entries into the pool, DraftKings will increase its donation total by $10,000, up to a combined total of $350,000.
“DraftKings is committed to empowering and advancing women at our company and in the communities where we live and work,” said Jason Robins, DraftKings co-founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board. “We are intentional in our efforts to foster a culture of inclusion and belonging within DraftKings and focused on supporting women entrepreneurs and small business owners to help them launch, build and grow their own companies.”
The funds generated by DraftKings and player participation in the Women’s History Month Popularity Pool will support several U.S. and global organizations which are actively engaged in providing tools, educational resources, mentorship, and assistance to female entrepreneurs and leaders including:
- Association of Military Spouse Entrepreneurs (AMSE): connects military spouse entrepreneurs with the tools and resources needed to become successful in launching and growing their businesses. AMSE is an exclusive community for military spouse entrepreneurs to learn how to launch, build, or scale their own business.
- Ladies Who Launch : is on a mission to celebrate and empower women (female-identifying and non-binary) entrepreneurs around the world. Through experiential events and our digital platforms, Ladies Who Launch helps women start, run and grow successful companies by connecting them with other entrepreneurs and the capital community.
- Bulgarian Fund for Women: Following the acquisition of SBTech in April 2020, DraftKings now has two major engineering centers in Sofia and Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The Bulgarian Fund for Women is the only indigenous donor in Bulgaria that raises funds and gives grants to local NGOs working to advance women’s rights, eliminate gender stereotypes, support women entrepreneurs, and achieve gender equality in all spheres of life and make a social change.
“AMSE was founded with the core value of creating economic impact for military spouses through entrepreneurship,” said ASME co-founders Flossie Hall and Moni Jefferson. “Military spouses face one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and we are out to lower that through entrepreneurial programming and education. This donation from DraftKings will allow AMSE to not only continue our work, but to expand our program by creating more education and resources to help us further our mission of supporting our nation’s military spouses as they build financial stability by starting, scaling and sustaining their own businesses.”
“Ladies Who Launch empowers all women globally to follow their dreams and launch their companies. We are thrilled to see the commitment shown by DraftKings to celebrate women both within and outside their organization,” said Julie Kikla, Executive Director at Ladies Who Launch. “This donation will greatly aid us in growing our education resources, allow for more accessible funding programs like our 2021 Launch Program, and continue to bring female founders together through our events and programming.”
As outlined in the company’s recently released inaugural Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) report , DraftKings views inclusion, equity and belonging (IEB) as a long-term priority, a key competitive advantage, and a differentiating characteristic that helps it attract the best talent. DraftKings annually invests $1 million to accelerate and implement its IEB philosophy. During March, the company has also launched a "Buy Women-Owned” initiative, encouraging employees to make purchases from female-owned businesses in each of the communities where DraftKings has an employee presence. Additionally, DraftKings is encouraging its employees to utilize its quarterly $100 company charity-match program to support their favorite women-focused charities.
DraftKings is committed to giving back to its communities and actively donates to organizations where its employees live and work. In 2020, the company donated approximately $1.6 million to these important initiatives, among others:
- Donated to United Way through its #DKRally initiative to support workers on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Partnered with VetsinTech and American Corporate Partners through the DraftKings Tech for Heroes program to provide funding to military veterans and their spouses for tech skills training and guidance to begin a career path in tech.
- Raised funds for breast cancer research through our second annual DraftKings Pink’ Em Initiative in collaboration with the Larry Fitzgerald Foundation.
- Donated to NAACP, Vera Institute of Justice, and Color of Change to advance racial and social justice efforts in the U.S.
- Supported Feeding America with 1 million meals as part of the company’s collaboration with The Match: Champions for Change, followed by another round of donations already in 2021 to provide Texas with nearly 2 million meals during the state’s winter storm.
About DraftKings
DraftKings Inc. is a digital sports entertainment and gaming company created to fuel the competitive spirit of sports fans with products that range across daily fantasy, regulated gaming and digital media. Headquartered in Boston, and launched in 2012 by Jason Robins, Matt Kalish and Paul Liberman, DraftKings is the only U.S.-based vertically integrated sports betting operator. DraftKings is a multi-channel provider of sports betting and gaming technologies, powering sports and gaming entertainment for 50+ operators in 17 countries. DraftKings’ Sportsbook is live with mobile and/or retail betting operations in the United States pursuant to regulations in Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. DraftKings’ daily fantasy sports product is available in 8 countries internationally with 15 distinct sports categories. DraftKings is the official daily fantasy partner of the NFL, MLB, NASCAR and the PGA TOUR as well as an authorized gaming operator of the NBA and MLB and an official betting operator of the PGA TOUR.
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