CE 100 Index Gains 3% as DraftKings Soars After Earnings

In a week that was largely dominated by earnings reports, the CE 100 Index gained 3% as all pillars advanced.  The Index’s upward trajectory outpaced even the tech-heavy NASDAQ’s gains.

Amid the rallies, the “Have Fun” pillar of the CE 100 Index led the way, gaining 5.8%

DraftKings was a standout, up 26.5%.  The company posted results for the fourth quarter, including commentary that the digital sports betting firm might accept cryptocurrency payments.

“It’s certainly something we’re looking at,” CEO Jason Robins told analysts. “It’s also getting regulators comfortable with it. They’re usually cautious around crypto. There are only a handful of states open to it at the moment, but if it grows to a larger number of states, it’s something we’d take a longer look at.”

Robins said a key area of focus for DraftKings in 2025 will be live betting, citing the company’s recent acquisitions of Simplebet, Sports IQ Analytics and Mustard Golf. Growing and integrating certain company verticals is also a priority, he added.

DraftKings’ fourth-quarter revenue rose 13%, to $1.39 billion. The company acquired 3.5 million new customers, and its total customer base rose 42%, reaching 10.1 million customers. DraftKings officials expect 2025 revenue to range from $6.3 billion to $6.6 billion, which reflects a 35% year-over-year increase.

Pay and Be Paid Names Jump

The Pay and Be Paid segment of the CE 100 Index was 4.3% higher. Sezzle and Affirm were 33.8% and 7.3% higher through the week, continuing a rally that has extended in the wake of Affirm’s earnings earlier in the month. (Affirm also announced a new partnership with FIS, as detailed below.)

Adyen’s boosted the segment’s upward trajectory, surging more than 20%.  The company’s earnings indicated that amid gains for its platform and debit-focused businesses (allowing for additional routing options in the U.S.), it noted momentum among enterprises and marketplaces processing payments online, in-store and across various devices.  Processed volume growth was up 22% in the most recent half, to 666.4 billion euros, while the EMEA was yet again a key net revenue contributor, growing 27% year on year. North America-related revenues were up 21%, and the consolidated top line was 22% higher, to a bit more than 1 billion euros.   Unified Commerce volumes gathered 35%.

FIS shares blunted some of the gains, sliding 17.3%.  In the latest earnings report, net income forecasts came in below Wall Street expectations.  During a conference call with analysts, however, management pointed to accelerating growth in key segments, including Banking Solutions, on the same day it announced a partnership with payment network Affirm.  FIS’ Banking Solutions revenues were 2% higher year on year, on an adjusted basis, to $1.7 billion, according to an earnings presentation. The Capital Markets segment saw a 9% adjusted revenue growth to $821 million.

During the call, CEO Stephanie Ferris said the results reflected the “momentum we are seeing in new sales across core banking and our key growth vectors of digital payments and commercial lending.” Cross-selling sales tied to FIS’ Amplify program were up 10%.

Mastercard’s stock was up 0.4%. The payments network announced that it is bringing its TRACE financial crime-fighting and anti-money-laundering tool to the Asia-Pacific region.

Visa and Fold partnered to launch a credit card that offers bitcoin rewards.  The new Fold Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card will join the debit card products already offered by Fold, which is a bitcoin rewards and financial services platform.  Visa’s stock gathered 1.4%.

In the Shop pillar of the CE 100 Index, which added 2%,  Shopify reported a 31% increase in fourth-quarter revenue to $2.81 billion.

With a nod to Shop Pay, as CEO Harley Finkelstein told analysts on the conference call, “the Shop Pay component has also become a compelling entry point into the Shopify ecosystem for enterprise brands.  We now have hundreds of millions of Shop Pay users with Shop Pay representing 38% of GPV, up from 33% of GPV in 2023. We also help merchants turn their retail locations into powerful acquisition channels by capturing more emails at checkout powered by the network effect of Shop Pay.”