Why This Investor Prefers Penn National Over DraftKings, Sees 'Huge Upside'

As the NFL season is set to kick off tonight, Short Hills Capital's Steve Weiss bought Penn National Gaming Inc PENN over DraftKings Inc DKNG, he said Thursday on CNBC's "Fast Money Halftime Report."

Betting has picked up dramatically ahead of the football season, Weiss said, adding that it's continuing to grow at exponential rates, according to statistics.

PENN VS DKNG: Weiss prefers Penn National over DraftKings because Penn National is profitable.

"I love companies that make money, hate companies that lose money," he said.

Related Link: Penn National Gaming's Debt Overview

Penn National is also backed by Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who is "one of the best marketers I have ever seen," he said.

Portnoy chimed in after Weiss announced that he bought Penn National stock.

The stock is more broad-reaching because the company also owns casinos, giving it extra reopening strength, Weiss noted.

"When the economy does reopen and people start going back, then that will hypercharge the results in this company," he said.

Weiss sees "huge upside" in Penn National stock.

PENN Price Action: Penn National has traded as high as $142 and as low as $52.09 over a 52-week period. The stock is up 2.16% at $84.37 at time of publication.

At publication time, the market cap of Penn National was about $13 billion, while the market cap of DraftKings was about $25 billion, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Photo: Pexels from Pixabay.