ARK Invest Adds Nearly $61M of DraftKings Stock Across Three Funds

Posted on: August 25, 2021, 07:56h. 

Last updated on: August 25, 2021, 10:42h.

Todd Shriber @etfgodfather Read More
Expertise: Financial, Gaming Business, Mergers and Acquisitions.

Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management continues embracing DraftKings (NASDAQ:DKNG). The growth fund manager gobbled up $60.6 million worth of the sportsbook operator’s shares on Tuesday, Aug. 24.

DraftKings stock
ARK Investment Manager founder Cathie Wood, seen above. Her firm bought $60.6 million worth of DraftKings stock yesterday. (Image: Barron’s)

The New York-based fund manager known for taking stakes in companies it views as innovative disruptors bought 1.07 million shares of the gaming equity. It spread that purchase across three of its exchange traded funds (ETFs), each of which previously had DraftKings positions.

Of that tally, 742,840 shares were directed to the ARK Innovation ETF (NYSEARCA:ARKK) — the issuer’s biggest ETF — with another 202,723 shares allocated to the ARK Next Generation ETF (NYSEARCA:ARKW). The remainder was purchased for inclusion in the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (NYSEARCA:ARKF).

ARK has been buying DraftKings stock since February. The money manager’s enthusiasm for the gaming name runs so deep that by the end of July, it owned 13.62 million shares, making it the fifth-largest institutional investor in the name.

Interesting Timing For ARK

With a time horizon of up to five years or more for many of its positions, Wood’s investment firm often looks to add to positions on weakness.

The opposite happened on Tuesday with DraftKings, as the shares jumped almost six percent on a day of strength for gaming equities. DraftKings also announced a micro-betting agreement with Simplebet. In recent days, there hasn’t been much weakness to speak of in DraftKings, as the stock is up 10.49 percent over the past month and almost 15 percent over the past month.

The fund manager adding to its position in the stock makes sense, because in a report out last month, ARK forecast that the US sports betting handle will jump to $180 billion from $18 billion over the next five years. That’s with revenue sporting a 31 percent compound annual growth rate.

Entering today, DraftKings accounted for 2.56 percent of the ARKK portfolio, making it the number 16 holding in that fund. It’s the tenth-largest holding in the internet ETF at a weight of 3.48 percent and has a weight of 2.07 percent in the fintech fund.

ARK’s Other Gaming Holdings

In addition to DraftKings, ARK has stakes in mobile games platform operator Skillz (NYSE:SKLZ) and sports betting data provider Genius Sports (NYSE:GENI), the latter initiated earlier this month.

Genius is currently a profitable position for ARK, while Skillz, in which the fund manager is one of the largest institutional owners, is down 44.5 percent year-to-date.

Aside from each being members of ARK ETFs, DraftKings, Genius, and Skillz have other things in common. Each came public following mergers with special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) and each has been targeted by short-sellers and bearish researchers this year.