DraftKings Review

Since being founded in 2012, DraftKings has quickly become the biggest daily fantasy sports provider in the United States.

Based out of Boston, DraftKings hosts more contests in a wider variety of sports than any other provider in the DFS market.

Since Major League Baseball became the first American pro sports organization to invest in DraftKings back in 2013, the company has gone on to explode onto the national scene.

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Key Information
    • Established in 2011
    • Website – DraftKings.com
    • Based in Boston, MA
    • Telephone – (508) 690-0014
    • Email – Support@DraftKings.com
Hit and Misses
    • Excellent promotional offers
    • Variety of contests
    • Large customer base
    • Quick withdrawal processing
    • Few deposit methods
    • Newer to the market
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If you’re interested in playing a daily fantasy contest, there’s a good chance DraftKings has the sport you’re looking for. The site hosts hundreds of contests per day, with thousands in prizes just waiting to be awarded. DraftKings paid out more than $1 billion in prizes in 2016 alone, and they continue to expand.

Let’s break down all that DraftKings has to offer.

Getting Started

If you’re new to DraftKings, the first thing you’ll have to do is create an account. Doing so is simple. All you need to do is create a username and password and enter some personal information, such as your country and state of residence, email address and physical address.

Who Is Able To Play

Not everyone in the United States is able to play, however. The following states have regulations prohibiting players from entering paid contests on DK:

  • Alabama
  • Arizona
  • Delaware
  • Hawaii
  • Idaho
  • Iowa
  • Louisiana
  • Montana
  • Nevada
  • Washington

You must also be at least 19 years of age in order to create an account if you are a legal resident of Nebraska or Alabama, and at least 21 if you are a legal resident of Massachusetts.

Legal residents of Alabama, Delaware or Idaho physically located outside of those respective states are eligible to deposit funds, enter contests and earn prizes. Canadian citizens are also eligible to play.

Making A Deposit

If you’re interested in entering paid contests, you will obviously need to deposit some cash into your account first. DraftKings accepts a number of payment methods, including the following:

  • PayPal
  • Mastercard
  • Visa
  • American Express
  • Discover

You are allowed to deposit as much as you’d like, though you will have to contact DK support if you want to increase your deposit limit. All deposits are final, though, so you won’t be able to obtain a refund if you suddenly feel a sense of regret. Just be smart with your money.

How to Withdrawal

If you’ve had some success playing DK, you’re going to want to withdraw some of that sweet spending money. After you win, the winnings show up in your DraftKings account almost immediately. Players may withdraw via paypal or via the payment method with which they used to deposit.

DraftKings processes all payouts between 9am and 5pm Eastern time Monday through Friday. It typically takes between two and seven business days for a payout to be processed and issued.

How to Play

DraftKings makes the process of playing incredibly easy. Make your way into the contest lobby and choose from their wide variety of options. DK offers contests in the following sports:

  • National Football League (NFL)
  • National Basketball Association (NBA)
  • Major League Baseball (MLB)
  • National Hockey League (NHL)
  • Golf
  • NASCAR
  • Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)
  • Canadian Football League (CFL)
  • League of Legends (eSports, LoL)
  • Soccer (EPL, MLS, La Liga, Liga MX, Champions League)

DraftKings uses a live scoring service, meaning players may follow their contests and see score update as live action occurs. Once a game’s scheduled start time passes, players may no longer adjust their lineups. Different sports use different scoring systems, so be sure to familiarize yourself with the rules prior to entering a contest.

Once a user has selected a sport and contest, they must now draft a team. Different contests have different rules, but the primary premise is to draft a team of players at or under a certain salary cap.

The best players will typically come with the heftiest price tags. Once the player has filled the roster as they see fit, they will officially hit “enter” to join a contest.

Mobile Devices

DraftKings is accessible via mobile device. Users may access the site using a mobile web browser, and DK also offers a mobile application that can be downloaded to Android and Apple devices.

Does DraftKings Offer a Deposit Bonus?

DraftKings offers new players the chance to double their initial deposit up to $600 as well as free entry into a contest with a $3 entry fee. DraftKings also rewards players that recommend the site to others.

If users post a specific referral link via email, Facebook or Twitter that causes others to sign up and deposit on DK, new players will receive $20 worth of DK dollars. The player that refers others to DK will also receive a prize.

Any bonus expires four months after it is initially accepted. The initial welcome bonus is released at $1 per every 100 Frequent Player Points (FPPs) earned. Every time a player enters a contest, FPPs are earned. If players accumulate enough FPPs, they may exchange those points for free contest entries and other prizes, such as DraftKings merchandise.

Contest Types

Not all contests are created equal. DraftKings offers a number of different contest types, as listed below:

  • Guaranteed Prize Pool (GPP) – A GPP is typically a large-field, tournament-style game that offers higher cash prizes at the top. This varies per contest, but typically the top-10 percent of finishers will win cash.
  • Leagues – Leagues are a relatively new addition to DraftKings. Players may form and customize their own private contests to play with friends.
  • 50/50 or Double-Up – Players that finish in the top half of scoring receive double the entry fee in prizes.
  • Head-to-Head – A one-on-one contest in the same format as 50/50. Whichever player wins, wins back double the entry fee.
  • Qualifiers / Satellites – These are contests with low entry fees. Winners and players that finish high in the standings may gain free entry into other contests.
  • Multipliers – Similar to 50/50s, only on a larger scale. Entrants may earn anywhere from 3x to 10x their initial entry fee.
  • FreeRoll – Contests that are free to enter. Winners receive DK dollars rather than cash prizes.
  • Beginner – If you’re new to DraftKings, you may enter beginner matches and play with others new to the scene. These are a good way to gain experience without having to go up against the best in the business.
  • Step Tournaments – Players may enter “step tournaments” and keep rising through the ranks as they continue to win. The first step starts with a $2 entry fee. If a player keeps winning, they may progress through all four levels and win a prize up to $200.

Is DraftKings a Scam?

DraftKings and other daily fantasy sports providers are legal thanks to a loophole in the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. This loophole was carved out so that people can run their season-long fantasy leagues online, and daily fantasy sports happily stepped in and took advantage. As a result, playing on DraftKings and other DFS sites is completely legal in the United States.

Going in, however, you must know that not everyone succeeds in daily fantasy sports. As the player pool has grown over the years, more and more players have begun to use sophisticated projection systems and other tools to help build themselves optimal lineups.

While those can only account for so much, casual players may have a hard time winning big-time money among an expanding sea of players that play for a living.

It DraftKings a scam? No. Are you likely to get rich quick playing DK, especially early on? Absolutely not. So, going in you should know that you’re playing for fun and have the chance to win a little bit of cash on the side. There’s always the chance you could hit the jackpot and win thousands, but keeping expectations in check is likely wise, especially for new players.

DraftKings is the leader in daily fantasy sports for a reason. They offer the widest array of contests among all big-time DFS sites, and they are constantly updating their offerings in order to appeal to a wider range of customers. Why not get started and try your hand today?

Kevin Roberts
Kevin Roberts Administrator

Kevin Roberts, previously published under the pseudonym Noah Davis, is one of the more diverse writers at GamblingSites.com. Like many of his colleagues, he's a huge fan of both football and basketball. But he also writes about box office records, TV show prop bets, DFS, and all kinds of other subjects.

When it comes to the NFL, Kevin's favorite team is the Green Bay Packers. He enjoys cheering them on with his wife and daughter.

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  1. Anthony Webb July 23, 2021 at 3:12 pm

    I am done with Draft Kings and am not doing business with them anymore because they are shady, they screwed me out of 150 dollars! I’m gonna try FanDuel instead! I’m posted reviews for other people to see so they can possibly think twice before doing business with DraftKings, What happened to me and my experience with them recently was: I spent 150 dollars to put a number of entries into a contest that took place on a Saturday! But the day before the contest was suppose to take place I went to the draftkings app to check my entries to see if any changes had been made to the players who were in the contest in order to be able to make adjustments if I had to but even I did my account was logged off! And I didn’t log off of the account myself! So of course I tried to log back in with my info but when I did it was like my account had been deleted or like it had been restarted from scratch and the entries that I had put into that contest were all gone and my 150 dollars was gone! So I’m like what the heck what’s going on and when I contacted customer service they gave me some kind of a lame excuse telling me “seems like you tried to sign up for a second account” but i never tried to sign up for a 2nd account, the only thing I did after I didn’t the 150 to put entries into that contest was come back to it to check if anything had changed so they were basically full of baloney! And let’s say even if I did try to Eby would that be a reason for them to just delete my account like that when I had spent 150 and had entries into a contest that was suppose to be coming up the next day??????? Doesn’t make sense, I kinda think someone saw I had put in a bunch of entries to the contest and that I mighta had a good chance of winning one of the top prizes so they decided to screw me over basically, very shady and very dishonest on their part, and even if you gonna do that atleast give me my money back, but I won’t hold my breath on that, so draft kings basically screwed me out of being able to play that contest and stole 150 from me, not a lot of money but it’s the principle that’s why I’m not doing business with them anymore I’ll try a different fantasy sports app

  2. GJ July 17, 2021 at 7:46 pm

    Just my recent experience. Had an account for years, sent all their verification paperwork, started noticing little issues on their end that made it annoying when I switched to an official email address easy to verify who I am. I wanted to play a little because I was bored traveling, ends up taking 3 reps a week to help fix a deposit issue on their end. No other issues ever mentioned. I deposit, lose, deposit, lose, deposit a 3rd time, finally win. Next day, take a small amount of winnings to play 1 entry in a 40 entry tourney. Within an hour, my account is fully locked. Email asks for ID, I send my real ID valid for literally everything in the US. No response. I email them, get a response that demands items outside their posted ToU and hems on even these additional items are enough. I say no, attach both their public ToU and their email and state their ToU has no mention of these items. I also state they can choose to close my account but no, they can’t choose to arbitrarily steal my money. They ghost. Be wary of this company.

  3. Pablo Gomez-Palacio May 15, 2021 at 5:57 pm

    The site was very hard to use to I decided to take out the initial 15 I had deposited. It wouldn’t let me and made me jump through dozens of hoops to try and get it back. To this day I don’t have my money. I could not recommend this site less.

  4. Desiree Isaryk April 20, 2021 at 6:22 am

    Worst play to play it’s up there with the 888casino. I had $135 between new user and bonus match and was shorted $10 cause was supposed to be $45 free. Anyways besides playing less than an hour I’m broke. The payout for new customers suck. I was logged on for an hous and most the time wasn’t playing and still lost. Never again and will never refer anyone just like 888casino.

  5. william March 26, 2021 at 9:12 am

    Shady company. I placed a bet then check back on my bets before the game and I see one of my bets is for the wrong game and team. I “cash out” and get hit with a penalty. Fine I figure it is my mistake. I submit the bet again and it looks fine. I check my now winning bet during the game and it has disappeared but the losing bets all stayed! The second time this happened, I reached out to their support team and was told that they would not help and I should take screen shots of all my bets going forward. Additionally I can only place bets on their glitchy app as the website will not work.

  6. Ky March 12, 2021 at 9:58 pm

    They put fake stats on their sportsbook, they say that Auston Matthews has a 60% chance to score a goal because he’s played 25 games and scored in 21 of those games but they leave out the fact that out of those 21 goals he’s scored he took 108 shots on goal which means the probability of one of his shots actually going into the goal in those games is 19.4% (108/21) which is the actual chance that he scores a goal not a 60% chance he scores a goal, don’t know where they come up with these “stats” but they call it “goal scorer percentage” which you can’t find anywhere on actual statistics from any sports websites let alone on draftkings itself, i had to contact them to figure out where they got the statistic that Auston Matthews scores 60% of his goals, i recommend not trusting the statistics they put on their app because they’re lying and making up their own random statistics and manipulating the actual equation you use to find percentage of goals scored to seem more appealing to the better

  7. Mike coffey February 20, 2021 at 9:42 am

    DraftKings takes your money and ties up your account so you can’t bet… do NOT use them. Rip-off!!!

  8. Kovocovy1 February 10, 2021 at 8:07 pm

    There app glitches , you have to watch when you make live bets. The real score an times are never right, they have decent promos, but when you have issues an try to get any help they always send something that doesn’t have nothing to do with what you are telling them. An had problems doing super bowl , tryed to get help . One said here a free bet for waiting. Never sent it . Then when I finally got someone about my issues , he just told me sorry , I’ve had better help on FanDuel .

  9. AceCapshaw February 7, 2021 at 6:35 pm

    I bought 15 $3.00/100k to first place for the Superbowl. Two had three duplicates and and fix them. I counted fifteen different entries before I went to bed. To my shock I thought wow I bet some of my lineups are doing good. I found 4 lineups all the same and 11 the same.
    They HAD TO HAVE CHANGED my lineups because when I check them last each one said one lineup and there was fifteen. Proof that DraftKings is a scam and it was easy to change the duplicates and I remember thinking I should have went in before the game and take Howard out of one of my lineups because he was on IR.??? But that lineup was one of the duplicate (3) lineups that i changed but i only changed two. Not one of my lineups had Howard so there’s no way I could have somehow turned the triplicate into an Elevenate and caused all those great picks go bye bye.
    Im a huge, Brady, Gronk and Brown fan but I had them and the two running backs. I had lineups that favored KC and the running back. One with TB defense but none showed up.

    It should never be this hard and it is a complete absolute scam. I will never put another drop, penny of money in DraftKings!!!!

  10. Bridgitt January 30, 2021 at 2:11 am

    Didn’t give me match deposit on my first deposit as stated and it’s like playing in DOS in the slots. Just took took took save your money ! What a farce

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