Harry Sloan, one of the founders of the blank-check company responsible for taking DraftKings public, has sold 250,000 shares of the gaming company. The sale took place on Tuesday, as confirmed by a Form 4 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) late Thursday. After this sale, Sloan retains ownership of 316,322 shares of the online sportsbook operator, according to the SEC filing.
The filing did not disclose the average sale price of Sloan’s shares, but considering DraftKings’ closing price of $41.71 on November 12, the 250,000 shares were valued at approximately $10.42 million. On November 7, Sloan received 352 restricted stock units.
Sloan, who formerly served as Chairman and CEO of the entertainment giant Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, played a pivotal role in Diamond Eagle Acquisition Corp., the blank check company DraftKings merged with to become a publicly traded firm in 2020. He currently serves as the vice chairman of DraftKings’ board.
This is not the first instance of Sloan selling DraftKings shares. He has been both a buyer and a seller of the company’s stock. A June Form 144 filing with the SEC indicated that Sloan sold another 250,000 shares on the 14th of that month, netting $9.53 million. In early March, he sold 43,000 granted shares, and on February 16, he disposed of 254,354 shares. At that time, Sloan owned 1.1 million shares of DraftKings, showing a significant reduction in his stake over the year.
DraftKings, known for its insider selling spree, often led by co-founders Matthew Kalish, Paul Liberman, and Jason Robins, rarely sees these insiders buying shares. However, the company did announce a $1 billion share repurchase plan earlier this year.
Sloan is well-known in the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) space. Since 2011, he has co-founded seven SPACs with partners including Jeff Sagansky and Eli Baker, raising over $5 billion in aggregate gross proceeds. Besides DraftKings, Sloan and his partners also founded Flying Eagle Acquisition Corp., which merged with mobile gaming and esports provider Skillz in 2020, leading to Skillz going public. While DraftKings has performed well post-SPAC, Skillz has struggled, with its stock down 18.11% year-to-date.
