Draftkings Review

DraftKings is not a regular bookmaker where one can wager on real sports. Instead, it is a destination for experiencing fantasy sports and competing with other players. As a twist, DraftKings provides the ability to go with short-term contests and wagers. The usual ‘fantasy sports’ run for the length of the real campaign, but one can even opt for daily fantasy contests at this institution.

Sports Betting options 

Most of the fantasy sports betting options available today tend to focus more on long-term contests. These contests would almost mimic the real tournaments in terms of length. This can turn out to be quite tedious for users who do not have the time to be on top of the teams for an extended period. DraftKings makes it easy for such people by allowing fantasy teams to be created and completed over a short period of time – typically a day or week.

Even though the time occupied by each contest is substantially lower, there is no reduction in the coverage of sports. There are more than 12 different sports covered by DraftKings. They include football, soccer, basketball, baseball, golf, and more. Immediately after opening an account and placing funds, users are directed towards creating a team with a predefined salary cap. Once the teams have been created, they are put into a competition where single or multiple qualifying rounds would determine the winner.

The short duration works in favour of DraftKings, as it becomes ideal for players who cannot spend an entire campaign making changes to the teams. Since it works on a day or week basis, a player can sign up and focus on a couple of competitions before getting back to their work.

Market Types

There are different markets available in each sport. A user can filter these options based on sport, buy-in value, or even type of contest. There is additional flexibility since players get to create contests on their own or join up with existing contests. There is a fundamental difference with the way each contest works.

Guaranteed Contest 

A guaranteed contest is about making sure that the prize pool remains the same even when the participant number changes. A number of gamblers tend to go with this contest since it has overlay potential. Moreover, these contests also tend to have higher popularity and visibility at online poker sites.

50/50 Contests

These are contests that are ideal for multiple players, who have multiple fantasy teams under the control. Once a player comes to the top 50%, they stand to receive money. The price structure is very simple since any player who finishes above the top 50% will not receive any money. A player’s funds can be easily doubled by such contests.

Head-to-head

These primarily involve players, who often fight for a single prize pool. For this purpose, the contests end up having different values of buy-in. The values can be as low as $1 or it can even go to $500. For this reason, it is preferred by a wide variety of players – both experienced and amateurs.

Qualifiers 

It is possible to gain entry into a qualifier with very low fees and this remains the biggest attraction. Qualifiers also pave way for entry into bigger tournaments that offer greater rewards. For example, it may take only a $5 fee for a qualifier tournament, but it can provide access to a $100 tournament.

Beginner

These are tournaments meant for newcomers, who are classified as players with experience of fewer than 50 contests. After competing in those 50 contests, a player no longer gets the opportunity to be part of the beginner group. They are pushed into tournaments that hosts experienced players.

Steps

Steps can also be compared to qualifiers in the ability to provide big wins at a small buy-in price. The primary difference is the ability to provide entry at various levels.

Multipliers 

These are contests that can easily return the entry fees after adding a multiplier, which can be 2X or even 8X. In terms of prizes, however, these contests do not differentiate among the top three positions. Hence, it is very likely that the top three positions in the contest would be sharing the same prize rather than different numbers for teams that finish in the first, second, and third places.

Available promotions 

It is easily possible to get overwhelmed by the sheer size of promotions available at DraftKings. Currently there is a up to a $1,000 sign up bonus offered for our Draftkings promo code. The opertaor manages and expansive sportsbook and it is unfair to compare the promotions offered by this institution with any other regular sportsbook. All promotions are split up into four categories:

• Qualifier programs
• Refer a friend
• Free to play
• Loyalty & rewards

The qualifier programs are largely focussed on major sports like basketball, ice hockey, football, and more. These take place over a few months and players will compete in multiple qualifiers in order to attain the final prize. For example, the SOC $150K King of The Pitch is a program that intends to offer $25,000 as the top prize to a player who has come to a qualifying period and online final. It is possible to qualify for a maximum of three times, while the online final would see 100 players competing against each other for the top honour.

The ‘Refer a Friend’ program can provide up to 30 DK dollars. An existing player can invite friends by sending referral links through text, email, or social media. The friends should use the referral link to open an account and place a minimum deposit of $10 to qualify for the offer. Now, if the referral resulted in a deposit of up to $24, DraftKings will provide 10 DK dollars to both referrer and referral. The prize increases to 20 DK dollars for deposits up to $49. If the deposits exceed $50, the prizes also increase to 30 DK dollars. Since five referrals are allowed during a promotional period, the referrer can expect to make a maximum of 150 DK dollars.

There are also free to play campaigns that are run on a regular basis. For example, players can take part for free in the NFL $70K AutoNation Free Football Challenge. It can provide up to $70,000 in prizes. Rather than be spread over the entire NFL campaign, this concentrates on a specific section. There are weekly prizes that can hit up to $5000.

There are rewards program that runs through the entire campaign. Some programs even provide rewards for activities like daily login. A player will continue to accumulate reward points over the course of a month and this determines their status tier. There are six status tiers: bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, and black. These statuses require as low as 100 crowns per month or they can require as much as 125,000 crowns per month. 

Additional Features 

Banking Options 

DraftKings has support for a large number of banking options. Every player receives the ability to make deposits using credit cards, PayPal, or gift cards. Crucially, one has the freedom to use every popular form of credit card – VISA, AMEX, MasterCard, and Discover. Initially, a new player will be restricted by strict deposit limits that can be relaxed only by submitting identification documents. There is also the option to use gift cards from AMEX, VISA, and MasterCard.

In terms of withdrawals, each player gets only two options – check and PayPal. The latter takes around 2 to 8 business days to process the request, while the former takes a whopping 2 to 3 weeks. The unavailability of options in the withdrawal section can be a hindrance for some.

Mobile App

DraftKings can be accessed through a mobile site. A lot of variations have been made to the desktop versions so that mobile devices do not suffer from a resource-hungry site. Additionally, there are dedicated apps available for Android. These will be able to offer gaming options with better quality than on the mobile site. A special app is available for iOS devices should players desire to access the app from an iPad or iPhone.

Customer Support 

Just like the banking section, a decent number of choices are available for players looking to get their queries resolved. The live chat feature is by far the most useful with agents available every two minutes. Even though traditional options like postcard and email are available, it is a major disadvantage on the part of DraftKings to not include telephone support. The unavailability of this feature in this modern time – especially when competitors are offering toll-free numbers – is a big disappointment.

Conclusion 

DraftKings has been around for a few years and it has been able to gain a great amount of traction when it comes to fantasy sports. This is down to positives like big bonuses, attractive design, and availability of excellent sports coverage. However, the option of playing short-term contests is one of the biggest draws with this institution. It is able to overcome disadvantages like the lack of direct phone support with ease. All these factors make DraftKings unavoidable when it comes to fantasy sports.

last update : April 2024