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DraftKings and other sportsbooks had a terrible December

Favored football teams are winning more games than usual, which is bad news for sports betting stocks.

Matt Phillips
1/8/25 11:32AM

Sports gambling stocks like DraftKings and FanDuel Flutter Entertainment had a rough run in December. Here’s a look.

The downturn stems, in part, from the fact that an unusual number of favored NFL teams actually won their games, says analyst Jason Bender of JMP securities.

In a note published Tuesday, he wrote:

“U.S. bettors traditionally wager on favorites and game outcomes in the NFL; therefore, when the betting favorites win, books lose. The trend was front and center during the current NFL season as bettors experienced one of the most favorable winning percentages for outright favorites in history. Said another way, operators, such as and FanDuel, held unlucky in 4Q24, and we believe will miss guidance and consensus estimates for the quarter.”

Flutter said the same on Tuesday, cutting its guidance while lamenting that this “period of very unfavorable US sports results” caused a hit of about $260 million to the company’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization from November 12 through year-end.

The platform, as well as DraftKings, MGM, and Caesar’s, are all due to report Q4 numbers in the coming weeks.

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Shares of Robinhood Markets, AppLovin, and Emcor are all rallying in post-market trading on Friday upon news that they’re being added to the S&P 500.

Shares of the brokerage popped 7.2%, the adtech company rose 7.8%, and the construction company was up a more modest 2.7% in the minutes following the announcement.

(Robinhood Markets, Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions.)

Strategy, another stock rumored to be in the running for inclusion in the benchmark US stock index that has been passed over, sank 2.5% in postmarket trading.

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Kenvue plunges after reports suggest RFK Jr. may try to link prenatal Tylenol use to autism

Kenvue sank 15% Friday after a WSJ report said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may attempt to link prenatal Tylenol use to autism in an upcoming government report.

Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol and formerly a division of Johnson & Johnson prior to a 2023 spin-out, pushed back, saying the science shows “no causal link” between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism, and pointed to FDA and medical groups that agree on the drug’s safety.

The FDA itself has found no “clear evidence” of harm but advises pregnant women to consult providers before taking OTC meds.

The report is also expected to float a folate-derived therapy as a potential treatment.

Tylenol is just the latest well-established medication to face scrutiny under Kennedy, who has already stirred controversy by reshaping vaccine policy and amplifying doubts about mRNA shots.

Kenvue shares are now down over 18% year-to-date.

RFK Jr., HHS to Link Autism to Tylenol Use in Pregnancy and Folate Deficiencies

RFK Jr.

The FDA itself has found no “clear evidence” of harm but advises pregnant women to consult providers before taking OTC meds.

The report is also expected to float a folate-derived therapy as a potential treatment.

Tylenol is just the latest well-established medication to face scrutiny under Kennedy, who has already stirred controversy by reshaping vaccine policy and amplifying doubts about mRNA shots.

Kenvue shares are now down over 18% year-to-date.

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After six straight days of closing lower, Wall Street appears to have decided enough is enough and is loading up on Lucid shares on Friday, sending them up 13% in recent trading. As of 2:10pm eastern, Lucid trading volumes were at more than 240% of their 30 day average.

Some of the move could be attributed to traders reading headlines that don’t take into consideration Lucid’s reverse split. Cantor Fitzgerald on Friday slapped a new price target on Lucid of $20, compared to its previous target of $3. Some news outlets (not us!) presented that as an increase. The problem: With the 1-for-10 reverse split in effect, a comparable price target would have been $30. The new $20 target is actually... a cut.

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