Draftkings Sportsbook Reviews
Updated DraftKings Review – Still the Leader in Daily Fantasy?
Over the past five NFL seasons, DraftKings has taken daily fantasy sports to the next level. While we can remember the first-ever Millionaire-Maker, DraftKings ran four Millionaire-Maker contests in one week earlier this season.
DraftKings Sportsbook has knocked its initial offering out of the ballpark with an extraordinarily user-friendly experience which is well catered to novice sports bettors. It also offers another. Reaching DraftKings online sportsbook customer support. Got a question about the DraftKings online sportsbook? Customer support is available 24/7 through a variety of different methods. If you need a quick answer to your question, try live chat, available directly through the sportsbook.
Innovative additions to their DFS product such as Showdown contests, Best Ball contests, and Live Finales only further separate DraftKings from the competition. Once you are ready to get started, be sure to use our DraftKings Promo Code for a 100% deposit bonus upon registering.
- 2Who is DraftKings?
- 3DraftKings Review of Website and App
- 5Complete Draftkings Sportsbook Review for October 2020
Who is DraftKings?
We feel obligated to start this DraftKings review with a bit of background information on the company itself. DraftKings has an interesting story, and their journey from startup to a billion-dollar valuation is incredibly impressive and should play a role in whether or not you trust them with your business.
Over the past few years, DraftKings has been instrumental in legalizing the game of playing fantasy sports for money online in the United States. Furthermore, DraftKings has been equally important in the ongoing battle to legalize sports betting outright.
The brains and ambition behind the meteoric rise of DraftKings belong to Jason Robins, Matthew Kalish and Paul Liberman. The complete back story of the company is the dream of any sports-loving techie in the 20 to 30-year-old range.
All three of these entrepreneurs previously worked at Vistaprint. While we don’t have a complete chronology, with a little imagination, one can understand how exciting the early days of creating a daily fantasy sports platform must have been.
It is however, a known fact that DraftKings Inc., actually started operations out of Paul Liberman’s house.
In early 2012, the three pals launched the startup that they’d previously been working on part-time. The very first contest was a daily fantasy baseball game (which was actually a free entry with a $100 prize pool). The first-place winner of the said contest won $50 and DraftKings was on its way.
The team continued to develop the product and added/updated formats, features, contests, and most importantly, found daily fantasy sports players. One of the key factors in DraftKings’ early success was aggressively pursuing online affiliates.
Taking their business to the next level, DraftKings acquired daily fantasy sports competitor StarStreet, in mid-2014 for an undisclosed amount. In late 2014 and early 2015, they would go on to make deals with MLB, NHL, and ESPN. This one year would completely alter the fantasy sports industry forever.
More specifically, DraftKings became the official daily fantasy game of the NHL. In addition, DraftKings became the official daily fantasy game of the MLB. Lastly, short-lived as it was, DraftKings & ESPN made an advertising deal for $250 million over 3 years.
Additionally, as DraftKings continued to expand, they made a few early, important, and notable moves. These include but are certainly not limited to funding from FOX Sports, Kraft Group, and Wellington Management.
In terms of early partnerships, DraftKings forged relations with the NFL, Bleacher Report, Nascar, and UFC.
In August of 2015, Jeffrey Haas was brought on board as the Chief International Officer to help expand the brand around the world.
From February to September of 2018, iGaming executive Sean Hurley was brought on to spearhead the first DraftKings sportsbook platform. Sean and the team were successful in this endeavor. DraftKings legally rolled out its sportsbook to indeed accept sports betting or wagers in New Jersey.
With a mountain of success under their belts, the founding DraftKing’s team was considering a merger with industry rival, FanDuel. This is of course until the FTC stepped in and the FanDuel Group and DraftKings merger was called off.
This was to avoid monopolizing the market space as the two pillars control roughly 90% of the entire industry.
DraftKings Inc. is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, with additional offices in California, Florida, Nevada, New Jersey, and New York. Their new HQ is a 105,000 square foot space, which is the largest single-floor office layout in all of Boston. They employ over 700 people.
DraftKings Review of Contest Types
Offering more content types than any other daily fantasy sports platform in the world, DraftKings is the place to place for more options and variety. They feature all the standard contests we have all come to know and love such as 50/50s, Head to Heads, and of course massive Guaranteed-Prize-Pool Tournaments, along with a number of others.
In addition to the standard variety of contests, DraftKings offers Beginner Type, Casual Type, Double-Ups, Multipliers, Satellites, and Qualifiers. There are also a ton of ways to sort or filter contests, including but not limited to Entry Fee, Prize Pool, and Total Entries or Field Size. Lastly, you can sort game style by Classic, Showdown, or Tiers (among others – depending upon sports season).
Nobody in the industry offers a wider variety of contest types than DraftKings. Not only do they currently offer a wider selection of contest types, but they are currently pushing the bar higher, releasing new ways to play every season.
The latest contest type to hit the DraftKings lobby is the In-Game-Showdown. We first saw these contests in November of 2019, and then even more of them in December 2019, and fast forward to the 2020 NFL season and the Showdown is now one of DraftKings’ most popular formats!
This contest allows you to draft a new Showdown lineup at halftime of an NFL game. With this new format, you are never out of the game, even if it has already started!
DraftKings Review of Entry Limits
We talk more about entry limits than any website on the planet. If you’re reading this review, you’re more than likely fairly new to daily fantasy sports. Welcome, we’re happy to have you on-board. If you don’t leave learning anything else, please understand the importance of entry limits.
When we refer to entry limits, we’re talking about the total number of lineups that any one participant can enter into a single contest. The importance of being aware of entry limits as it relates to DraftKings cannot be overstated.
Typically, new players are attracted to contests featuring large prize pools, which is totally fine. However, in most contests featuring enormous prize pools, there will also be seriously large entry limits.
If you are reading this DraftKings review then it is important you understand what contests you should be entering during your first month on their platform. As a new player, you need to focus on what we call cash games.
For example, you could be entering a contest where your competitors are entering as many as 150 different lineups, compared to your 1. Given player pools are typically limited to 11 games, of which only a handful have significant fantasy impact, this means that when you build a good lineup there is likely a pro out there building a dozen variations of the same exact lineup.
DraftKing’s entry limits are easily identifiable. Simply click on the contest title or the ‘M’ on the contest description and find the limit on the top right-hand side of the pop-up. Specifically, the number is located next to the ‘Multi-Entry’ title.
If you’re a newbie, seek out single entry contests as if your bankroll depends on it because it does. We would also recommend you check out the average results page at DraftKings to give yourself an idea of the odds to win.
DraftKings Review of Player Pricing / Team Budget
Unlike some daily fantasy sports platforms, DraftKing’s player pricing and team budgets or salary caps are pretty consistent from contest to contest and sport to sport.
For example, you’ll likely be creating lineups with a $50,000 budget regardless of the sport or the total number of ‘players’ making up your lineup.
Like all modern-day fantasy sports, player pricing is about as dialed in as it could possibly be. With that being said, there’s always a chance to find value at the beginning of any season.
While certainly not a season-long strategy, look for value in player pricing on opening day schedules.
Outside of that, search for value elsewhere. We actually go into great detail about finding value in our podcast.
DraftKings Review of Website and App
In terms of shear interface cleanliness and design, FanDuel has the upper hand. However, in terms of available platform features and options, DraftKings is second to none.
We expect DraftKings to continue making their platform more user-friendly over time. Especially as it relates to lower their churn rate (ie. newbies finding the platform confusing). One thing you can do as a new player is to review DraftKings’ commitment to fair play. If you are aware of the uphill battle new players face, you will be less likely to fall into the same mistakes most newbies make.
If you’re a daily fantasy sports fan, however, there is literally no better place to play on the planet. Also noteworthy, the native DraftKings app is extremely playable. For daily fantasy sports news and data fanatics, the DK Live app is a must-have.
Lastly, as sports betting continues to roll-out across the country, the DraftKings Sportsbook app will be nothing short of addictive.
Pros and Cons for the DraftKings DFS Product
Each item on this complete list of pros and cons for the DraftKings DFS website and app has been updated for the 2020 NFL season. These are the best features and biggest problems with the current DraftKings Daily Fantasy Sports product.
Pros | Cons |
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Constant influx of new players makes winning easier. | Highest rake in industry. |
Flawless UI/UX for both website and app. | Highest entry-limits in industry. |
Reliable US-based customer support. | Full PPR scoring format is extremely flawed. |
Constantly adding innovative new products. | |
Largest GPP contests in the industry. | |
Best new player promotions in the industry. | |
Better player rewards than any other DFS product. |
Even for us, despite working in this industry for nearly a decade, it can take writing out the pros and cons of a product to truly understand how special it is. DraftKings has driven innovation in the DFS industry for the past 8+ years, deservingly making it the titan of the industry that it is today.
DraftKings DFS Review Summary
In closing, DraftKings is one of two absolutely dominant daily fantasy sports platforms. They didn’t earn that position by purchasing it. We do not give out favorable reviews for no reason, in fact, the majority of the platforms we review have a grade of 3.8 stars or lower.
DraftKings is a 5-star company because they constantly push the limits in this industry, is a leader in innovation and has taken daily fantasy sports to a completely new level in 2019.
Review | DraftKings Daily Fantasy Sports |
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Summary | When it comes to Daily Fantasy Sports, there is no more debate. DraftKings is King. They offer more contests, bigger contests, more promotions, bigger promotions, more sports, and a better overall player experience. The website and app work flawlessly on any device. Managing your account, rewards, deposit bonus, dealing with support… everything functions flawlessly with DraftKings. Clearly it is working as they have the largest player pool and most revenue of any DFS product in the industry. |
Author | Chris Lollis |
Rating | 4.9 (out of 5) |
Complete Draftkings Sportsbook Review for October 2020
In this DraftKings sportsbook review, we will break down everything you need to know about the current DraftKings SportsBook product. This includes where it is legal and licensed, a review of bet types available, website and app UX and functionality, and even a breakdown of juice charged to players. If you think your ready to place your bets, be sure to use our DraftKings Promo Code for the max deposit bonus when setting up your new account.
We are incredibly excited and encouraged by what we’re seeing in the American sports betting market.
We’re not going to go into detail regarding the DraftKings company, its founders, or their history in this review. If you’d like to learn about that specific information, we encourage you to read our DraftKings Review.
We’ll assume that you’re completely up to speed about the history of sports betting, specifically online, relative to the United States.
Now that we’re all at the proverbial edge of our seats as it relates to rolling out legal sports betting in the U.S, let’s consider where DraftKings is at, what they’ve done to get here and what the company’s future looks like.
DraftKings has perhaps done more as a relatively small private business than anybody or any group in the arena of daily fantasy and sports betting.
Not only have they legitimized daily fantasy sports and opened up a path to market, but they’ve also helped bring the overarching question of legally betting on sports in the U.S to individual states.
While we don’t want to get politically wonky, the primary reason for U.S sports betting is in the national headlines is the Supreme Court’s decision in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, made on May 14th, 2018.
In an extremely unique bipartisan ‘situation’, New Jersey became the first state in which DraftKings was able to offer sports betting online.
All political leanings aside, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (Democrat) brought the state’s sports betting case to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). The court essentially struck a conservative-leaning decision in striking down the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA).
We use the word conservative because the reasoning behind striking down PASPA predominantly stemmed from the 10th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and individual state sovereignty.
For those interested, the 10th Amendment states, ‘The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.’
In layman’s terms, before this ruling in mid-May 2018, even if an individual state wanted to take measures to legalize and regulate sports betting within its borders, it wasn’t able to due to a ‘Federal Act’ established in 1992.
What happened in New Jersey creates the pathway for every other state in the country to make their own decisions relative to sports betting. The SCOTUS ruling in no way, shape, or form created some sort of new free market or a blank canvas for sports betting operations.
In fact, the SCOTUS decision simple brought the matter of sports betting to the states themselves. Unfortunately, even at the state level, there are countless laws, rules, and regulations to deal with. In other words, sports betting in the U.S is making incredible strides towards legalization, but there are many headwinds that will challenge its rollout.
Nevertheless, DraftKings is up for the task. After all, the FTC ensured that DraftKings couldn’t merge with FanDuel. They officially have little else to do, except for continuing to dominate daily fantasy and push for the unleashing of sports betting in U.S markets. Both of which they’ve played a vital role in completely re-inventing.
The DraftKings is run by it’s a fearless and innovative leader, Jason Robins. Who’s been indeed responsible for building the now billion-dollar company from the ground up.
A Duke University economics and computer science grad, Robins has been closely tied to the passing of 19 legislative bills relative to daily fantasy and sports betting.
DraftKings and FanDuel account for roughly 90% of the daily fantasy sports space in the United States. In our opinion, DK will have similar market dominance in the sports betting space. Even if they eventually get purchased, the DraftKings name and likely operations will remain exactly the same. Their legal department and lobbying weight, however, will likely increase.
DraftKings Sportsbook Review of Betting Types
All the typical betting options are available via DraftKings, including but not limited to game lines, prop bets, parlays, teasers, live betting and futures.
For the new sports betters among you, know that live betting is relatively new and exciting.
Where betters that came before you could only dream of live betting, you’ll be introduced to an absolutely huge variety of ways to bet on players and games you are interested in.
The wide variety of additional betting types vary by sport. For example, you’ll see options of betting on home runs, strikeouts, hits, and runs when it comes to MLB. When it comes to golf, for example, you can bet on finishing positions and players placing in the top 20 as well as leaders & scores after each round. You get the idea.
DraftKings Sportsbook Review of Rollover Policy
Thankfully, DraftKings doesn’t have a rollover policy. For those that don’t know, most offshore sportsbooks do have a rollover policy and it’s often an absolute bear to deal with. US sportsbooks however are going to be heavily regulated to ensure entirely fair practices.
With that being said, it’s incredibly important to read over DraftKing’s terms and conditions to ensure you are not hit with any surprises regarding your account.
Being that you probably won’t read the entire legal document, we strongly advise that you at least have a look at the payment and withdrawal sections, as well as all information related to the rules of the sport you’ll be betting on.
When it comes specifically to promotions and bonuses, DraftKings clearly lays out the guidelines and or terms for each. For example, they offer all different kinds of promotions throughout the year and they tend to vary based on the sport and or event. Importantly, these promotions are used to entice you to bet, they’re not just handing out free money or free anything. Before accepting any special offers, be sure to read the full details to understand exactly what you’re signing up for.
DraftKings Sportsbook Review of House Rules
In order to find DraftKing’s ‘House Rules,’ you’ll need to navigate to the help tab. From there, you’ll be able to view both General Betting Rules and Sport Rules. If you’re going to be betting on sports with DraftKings, it’s important that you understand the rules, at least as they relate to the sport your betting on.
For example, their football section has 19 rules. The first rule is as followed, ‘Unless otherwise stated, all bets on Football are determined on the basis of the result after the so-called extra (over) time.’ The rest of the rules deal with other typical variations that can impact betting on football on their platform, including often controversial situations.
DraftKings Sportsbook Review of Platform / App UI & UX
Just like DraftKings DFS, their Sportsbook platform is as good as they come. It’s developed and designed with ease of use or intuitiveness in mind.
DraftKings knows the tidal wave of users that will soon be on this platform and they’re going all out, holding nothing back in its creation.
Additionally, they have a phenomenal help section, full of videos and tutorials to answer the many questions that new sports betters will no doubt have. The DraftKings Sportsbook native app will undoubtedly be downloaded on millions of phones and used daily as sports betting is legalized throughout the U.S.
DraftKings Sportsbook Review of Sports Covered
All of the major sports are on the menu of course, including the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, Golf, NCAAF, and NCAAB. In addition, for those of you who like to bet on everything, MMA, Soccer, Boxing, Cycling, Motor Sports and even Rugby are also available.
DraftKings Sportsbook Review Summary for 2020
The bottom line is that the DraftKings Sportsbook is already an extremely polished product. With more betting options, better live betting, and some of the top new player promotions in the industry, DraftKings should remain one of, if not the top book in the US.
All that’s left is for users from each state to be allowed to use it, legally.
Review | Current DraftKings SportsBook Review |
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Summary | The DraftKings sportsbook has a lot to offer new players. From an intuitive, player-friendly layout to the most impressive deposit bonus in the industry, we can see why they are amongst the fastest growing sportsbook in the US. There is plenty to love once you are an established customer as well. This includes more lines than anyone, better live betting, and more prop bet options. The only drawback here is they consistently rank last or next-to-last in the industry in terms of juice. Way too often, lines that you can find at -105 or -110 elsewhere are -110 or -115 on DraftKings. |
Author | Chris Lollis |
Rating | 4.7 (out of 5) |
Additional Platform Reviews
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