DraftKings SportsBook and DFS Review

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 DFS 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 backstory of the company is the dream of anyone that loves sports and technology.

All three of these entrepreneurs previously worked at Vistaprint. One can only guess just 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 late 2015, Jeffrey Haas was brought on board as the CIO to help expand the brand globally.

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 DraftKings 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 the two companies becoming one that owned a 100% stake in the DFS 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 find variety. They feature all the standard contests we have all come to know and love on DraftKings. These include 50/50s, Head to Heads, and of course massive Guaranteed Prize Pool Tournaments.

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, making it easy to find exactly the contest you are looking for. These include sorting by contest size, entry fee, and total prize pool.

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 are finding 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. Fast-forward to the 2022-23 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 there are several points you should focus on including contest selection. 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. Each slate’s player pool is typically limited to around a dozen games, with a limited number of relevant players on each team. This means pros are able to have several versions of the most popular stacks for each slate.

DraftKing’s entry limits are easily identifiable. Simply click on the contest title to 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. New players should also review the average results page at DraftKings. This will give you an idea of the actual odds of winning.

DraftKings Review of Player Pricing / Team Budget

Unlike some DFS apps, DraftKings’ player pricing and team budgets or salary caps are pretty consistent from sport to sport.

For example, you will likely find a $50,000 salary cap, regardless of the sport you are building a lineup for.

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 sheer 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 its platform more user-friendly over time. Especially as it relates to lowering 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 should be able to avoid common newbie mistakes.

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 2023 NBA, NHL, and CBB seasons. These are the best features and biggest problems with the current DraftKings Daily Fantasy Sports product.

Even after a decade in this industry, it takes us writing out the pros and cons of a company to 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, are a leader in innovation, and has taken daily fantasy sports to a completely new level in 2019.

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 on the history of online sports betting in the United States.

Now that we are all aware that states are already rolling out legal sports betting in the U.S, let’s consider DraftKings’ role in the industry.

DraftKings has done more than any other company to push the boundaries of both DFS and sports betting.

Not only have they legitimized daily fantasy sports and opened up a path to market, but they have also helped bring legal sports betting to the United States.

While we don’t want to get politically wonky, the primary reason U.S sports betting is in the national headlines is the Supreme Court’s decision in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association. This decision was made on May 14th, 2018.

In an extremely important decision, New Jersey became the first state in which DraftKings offered online sports betting.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (Democrat) brought the state’s sports betting case to the Supreme Court. The court essentially struck a bettor-friendly decision in striking down the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA).

Before this ruling in May of 2018, even if an individual state wanted to take measures to legalize and regulate sports betting within its borders, it wasn’t able to. This was due to a ‘Federal Act’ established in 1992.

What happened in New Jersey created the pathway for every other state in the country to legalize sports betting. The SCOTUS ruling did not create some sort of new free market or a blank canvas for sports betting.

In fact, the SCOTUS decision simply 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 toward legality. That being said, 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 to continue pushing sports betting into new U.S markets. Both of which they’ve played a vital role in completely re-inventing.

The DraftKings is run by its fearless and innovative leader, Jason Robins. Who’s been indeed responsible for building the now billion-dollar company from the ground up?

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 varies 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 the finishing position for every golfer in a field.

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, we recommend reviewing the terms and conditions to ensure you are not hit with any surprises. DraftKings regularly updates these, so check back often.

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. Another section worth your review are the rules of the sport you will 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. These tend to vary based on upcoming major sporting events. 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 house rules.

For example, their football section has 19 rules. These rules address everything from postponed games to the timelines lock.

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 overall user experience 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 app has already been downloaded and used by millions of US sports bettors.

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 2023

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 continue to dominate in 2023.

All that’s left is for users from each state to be allowed to use it, legally.

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