Full Review

How To Play DraftKings Fantasy Sports

A Boston, Massachusetts company, DraftKings is one of the better-known daily fantasy sports real money gambling sites. To play, you simply use a fixed salary cap of $50,000 to draft a Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, National Basketball Association, National Football League, or NCAA basketball or football lineup. You can then submit that lineup to multiple leagues by clicking on “Draft Team”. Some leagues are free and others are pay to play. Play runs daily and weekly. At the DraftKings website you can follow your progress under the “My Contests” tab, and you can continually change your roster until the contest begins. If you finish in a paid position in any contest you entered, you win the amount determined when applicable games and players are done playing.

Promotions and Player Bonuses

DraftKings offers a friend referral bonus which works on two levels. Invite your friends through Facebook, Twitter or e-mail, and when they open up and fund a DraftKings account, you earn up to 35% commission on all their future purchases. Also, both you and your friends will receive an entry into a free $4,000 contest. Several promotions are offered throughout the year which are specific to different sports leagues. But one of the most unique promotions is the groundbreaking Steps Tournaments the company offers.

These tournaments are 4 level contests with continuing higher buy-ins. You can begin at step 1 for just $2, and as you continually win and advance to higher levels, you have the capability to win more money without any additional increases. The site also offers a generous 100% first-time deposit bonus up to $600, with a minimum deposit of just $5. A free entry $2 ticket to play your first game on the house is another current bonus offered. Another awesome bonus is the Frequent Player Points you accrue simply by playing, which you can redeem for league and contest entries, and even Google Glass or a trip to space (no joking).

Are US Players Legally Supported?

Fantasy sports is looked upon as a skill-based enterprise. Not considered a luck-based gamble, this makes daily fantasy sports played while wagering real money absolutely legal in the United States and Canada.

Contests and Games Offered

The company recently added PGA golf fantasy leagues, but the major focus is on daily and weekly salary cap fantasy sports covering pro and college fantasy basketball and football action, as well as professional hockey and baseball leagues . Contests and leagues run from head-to-head to multiple player formats with anywhere from three to several thousand players participating. 50/50 contests are also held which payout to the top half of the field, and the unique multilevel Steps Tourneys we mentioned above are also present.

Variable and guaranteed tournaments are both offered. Entry fees on the contests offered run anywhere from free play to several thousand dollars, with freerolls available daily and weekly. Special qualifiers and satellites are held year round which can earn you entry into high dollar tournaments and leagues with thousands, and even sometimes millions of dollars awarded. DK also teamed up with the World Poker Tour in 2013 for the first in what the company announced will be many future DraftKings/WPT contests. The company is the exclusive daily fantasy sports site of the WPT, running multiple satellites for all the major WPT events during NFL, NBA and CFB seasons.

Banking Options, Deposits and Withdrawals

American Express, MasterCard, Visa and Discover credit and gift cards are honored for deposits. You may also open an account through PayPal or Dwolla. There is no maximum withdrawal, and all cash outs are guaranteed to be processed within two business days. Withdrawals are made to either your PayPal account or via a certified check.

Customer Support and Service

You can contact DK customer service professionals by heading to the bottom of any page on the site and clicking Contact Us. Phone support will be added soon, and current contact options include chat, e-mail and snail mail.

DraftKings Software and Interface

When you first log into your account, your user name and balance are located on the top of the screen. Just below that you will see options for Lobby, My Lineups, My Contests and Promotions. Then a single multi-tab column lists all of the action available, with multiple filters. With a clean and simple user interface reminiscent of FanDuel and DraftStreet, DK is perfect for beginners and veterans alike. But one place where DraftKings outdoes both of those top class operations is with its late swap feature.

Most daily fantasy sports sites lock your lineup when the first game on game day starts. However, DraftKings allows you to continually manipulate your lineup and swap players in and out until each individual player begins their particular game. This allows you to keep informed and make crucial moves at the last second which can crush the competition. The mobile interface is complete, allowing you the full desktop experience. And it is no wonder that the DK software is notoriously quick and reliable, seeing as how the ownership group previously ran one of the largest online print companies in the world (VistaPrint). There is no chat feature, but on the positive side, import and export lineup options and multi-team editing quickly allow you the ability to drastically and rapidly select across all of your lineups, efficiently replacing one player in each of them with just a couple of clicks.

Summary and Overall Experience

In 2012 the founders and owners of VistaPrint sold that successful business to focus exclusively on running the DraftKings website full-time. What this means is a huge influx of money, and some of the largest daily fantasy sports tournaments and leagues you will find anywhere online. You have to mention DraftKings in the same breath as FanDuel and DraftStreet as the big three in the DFS industry. And the unique Steps Tournaments allowing you to leverage a very small entry fee for a possibly large prize pool is a groundbreaking offering.

Regarding the site software, both mobile and desktop user control panels are clean and simple to use, allowing you access to the main lobby, your account information, banking, sports research and lineup editing. The 100% deposit match up to $600 is arguably the best in the industry, and the late swap player editing feature is outstanding. With daily and weekly free rolls, access to literally millions of dollars in tournaments and leagues across all sports, and a management team dedicated to becoming the best in the daily fantasy sports business, DraftKings will be a top rate player in the DFS industry for some time.

Sign Up Now