The daily fantasy sports and sports book giant is donating their profits from this weekend's NBA and WNBA contests to charity.
DraftKings Makes Pledge to Fight Racial Injustice
DraftKings plans on donating profits from their NBA and WNBA DFS contests this weekend to organizations that advance racial justice in the United States.
During an appearance on CNBC, DraftKings CEO Jason Robins committed to donating 100% of the profits the company makes this weekend to, “charities and other initiatives that support combating racism and promoting racial justice and social justice.”
Earlier in the week, DraftKings put out a statement that said the following:
“The DraftKings community can play an important role in amplifying the message of Black athletes. We stand with the Black community in pursuit of basic human rights and justice.”
NBA to Resume Playoffs Saturday
The NBA playoffs have been postponed since Wednesday when players from all teams sat out in protest over the police shooting of Jacob Blake. The league is now scheduled to resume playoff action after four days of no games on Saturday. The action will pick up with Game 5 of the best of seven series for the Milwaukee Bucks and Orlando Magic. Milwaukee leads that series 3-1. The Rockets and Thunder are knotted up at two games a piece and the Lakers have a 3-1 lead over the Blazers. Also in action this weekend are the Mavericks and Clippers where LA has a 3-2 series lead and the Jazz and Nuggets with Utah leading 3-2.
This weekend has a full slate of games in the WNBA, MLB, UFC, and the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. For more game previews and gambling analysis, head over to SI Gambling and subscribe for even more analysis and sharp action at SI Fantasy PRO.
Daily Business/Coronavirus Update
According to Johns Hopkins, there are over 24.5 million cases of the virus worldwide, with over 832,000 deaths. The U.S. has surpassed 5.8 million cases with over 181,000 deaths. Coca-Cola announced that it's cutting its workforce, and offered voluntary separation to at least 4,000 employees in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico as it repositions itself with a broader portfolio. The staff cut amounts to about 4.7% of the 86,000 people Coke employed at the end of 2019. Of the 86,000, 10,800 were in North America.
MGM plans to cut 18,000 workers due to the pressures that the pandemic has put on these casinos and hotels. The reduction amounts to more than 25% of MGM’s headcount prior to the pandemic which amounts to about 70,000 workers. MGM has 29 hotels and casinos. This follows job cut announcements from Salesforce--which is eliminating around 1,000 jobs-- Bed Bath & Beyond -- which is laying off around 2,800 people -- and of course, United Airlines and American Airlines, which have been sounding the horn about job cuts and furloughs come October.
As a reminder, jobless claims Thursday had 1 million Americans filing first-time claims, while 27 million Americans continue to be on unemployment and politicians on the Hill still have not agreed on the terms and size of another stimulus package and only 6 states are paying out President Donald Trump’s $300 unemployment benefit so far.
TheStreet's Katherine Ross contributed to this report.