DraftKings Review

We here at PDFS have been covering Daily Fantasy Sports since it’s very early inception and we have seen sites come and go very quickly. When Draftkings.com first arrived in the DFS space we all had the same opinion – these guys are legit and will be big time players in the industry for years to come. Not only have they lived up to those expectations but they have exceeded them by leaps and bounds. These guys well deserve all the praise they are given and are at the very top of the daily fantasy sports world. They offer the biggest array of fantasy sports contests that so far is unmatched in the industry, from NFL to MMA every sport is covered by Draftkings. Their prize pools are enormous with players on their site literally winning as much $1 Million in some contests and for 2015 they will be giving away a guaranteed $1 Billion in prizes. The website is well designed and the software is some of the best in the industry. Draftkings has become one of the best, if not the best DFS site, and we are official partners with them.

Quick Review Points

What’s Great at Draftkings

• Variety of Sports
• Huge Prize Pools
• Major Sports Partnerships
• VIP trips

Draftkings Could Improve

• More Esports Game Offerings
• Better VIP store offerings

Draftkings Free Cash Entry Ticket

One of the most important features of any Daily Fantasy Site is the promotion they give you when depositing for the first time, hey after all we are choosing to play our hard earned cash at their site so they better give us a decent incentive right off the bat. Draftkings offers all new players a Free Cash Entry Ticket which can be used to win real money in a sport of your choice.

This is currently the best new player promotion offered by them and it’s certainly is a nice way to try and build your winnings without having to play a penny. It’s not the biggest incentive in the world of DFS but for a site as huge as Draftkings it is a nice reward for new players. We will always have the most current new player incentive as they always inform us when a new offer is available.

DK Sports Contests and Formats

When it comes to the variety of sports and contests offered Draftkings is the best hands down. They have almost every sport possible and the list seems to grow every year. Right now here are all the fantasy sports you can play at Draftkings.com:

• NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL
• Golf, College Football, College Basketball (NCAA)
• MMA, Nascar, Soccer
• LOL Esports

What we love about DK are the partnerships they have built over the years with leagues and organizations that allow them to offer unique prizes and experiences that you won’t find anywhere else. They are official partners of Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, UFC, Major League Soccer, Nascar, and the WWE. It’s these type of partnerships that allow them to give their players once and a lifetime experiences but also make them one of the most trusted sites in the business. We will break down some of their most popular contests later on in the review, but DK continues to not only give away millions in prizes, but their unique VIP trips and excursions are refreshing and unmatched. Here is a list of the type of contests they offer (all contests are in traditional salary cap format):

• Guaranteed Prize Pools
• Qualifiers
• Head to Head
• 50/50 Contests
• Leagues
• Multiplier Contests
• Beginner Contests
• Steps Contests
• Freerolls

Draftkings Sports Rules

All of Draftkings contests are in salary cap format and for each sport you are given a total of $50,000 in salary to use on drafting players. Your total team salary must fit under $50,000 or exactly $50,000 in order to be eligible to play. Contest results and winners are based on total points accumulated by your team of players by the end of all games or tournaments. Player positions are determined by Draftkings based on their stats provider STATS LLC. Contests close approx. 5 minutes before the first game and your players are locked in once their game starts. Draftkings does offer late swaps which means if you have players drafted whose games start late, you can still change them even after your earlier games have begun. Live scoring takes place for every sport and contest so you can follow your team live as the scoring is happening. Here is the list of draft positions for each sport:

NFL

• Postions Drafted: 9 (QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, WR, TE, Flex, DEF)

MLB

• Positions Drafted: 10 (P, P, C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF)

NBA

• Positions Drafted: 8 (PG, SG, SF, PF, C, G, F, Util)

NHL

• Positions Drafted: 9 (G, W, W, W, C, C, D, D, Util)

Golf

• Golfers Drafted: 6

MMA

• Fighters Drafted: 5

Soccer

• Positions Drafted: 8 (GK, D, D, M, M, F, F, Flex)

NASCAR

• Drivers Drafted: 5

League of Legends

• Players Drafted: 8 (TOP, JNG, MID, ADC, SUP, Flex, Flex, Team)

DraftKings Lobby Design

The lobby is well-designed and has an easy learning curve. The top menu bar has all the essentials including your current contests, drafted lineups & current balance. Above the contest selection screen, they list featured contests which you can jump right into or find out more information about. On a side note, Draftkings graphics is the best we’ve seen so far and their major tournaments have excellent landing pages with detailed info and beautiful logo design. To a beginner player, the lobby might look a bit confusing or overwhelming but that is quickly alleviated once you learn all the filters at the top of their contest screen. You can pinpoint the exact type of contest you are interested in by filtering by sport and type of contest, for example, a head to head contest. Every tab or header is sortable, by clicking on each you can put contests in order by entry fee, prize pool, date, etc.. .Without any filters selected Draftkings will list their biggest prize pools at the very top so the most popular contests are always easy to find.

Player Draft Screen

Drafting your players is a seamless process and the wealth of data you are given is plentiful. All the details about the contest are laid out at the top of the selection screen and you can click the more details link to get the full prize pool breakdown. All the games available for drafting players are below the contest details and you can filter the players by an individual team or a specific match-up by clicking on the teams you want. The players to draft are in an excel-like spreadsheet on the left with your team in a similar table on the right. Each player is separated into his position category and when you click on their name you are given a pop-up screen with extra information. This is where Draftkings excels compared to other DFS sites as they give you all the stats you need to draft your team. You are given the latest news for the player, his current stats, home/away splits, 10 game logs, match-up vs opposition and average fantasy points per game. So even if you don’t like do you own homework Draftkings provides you with more than enough data to draft a competitive team. A significant addition to their drafting screen is a little green check mark that lets you know that a player is indeed in the starting lineup for the game, believe me nothing sucks more then drafting a player only to find out he’s not even playing. The only small complaint we have about the drafting process is as you draft players and fill your team out we wish they would automatically take you to the next position you need to fill, as opposed to you manually having to click the tabs. It’s a very small thing, but some other sites do this and it makes the process just a little bit quicker and easier.

Deposits and Withdrawals at Draftkings

For deposits to your account DK accepts all of the following:

• Visa, Mastercard, Discovery, American Express
• Paypal
• Gift cards from Visa, Mastercard or American Express
• Pre-paid Credit Cards

When depositing you can select from predetermined amounts or choose your own by selecting “Other”. The minimum deposit is $5 and the maximum is $2000. You can increase your deposit limit by contacting their support team. To withdraw money from your account they offer the following options:

• Paypal
• Mailed Check

It’s important to know that when withdrawing money their policy is to first refund your original deposit methods and then issue the rest by PayPal or check. As with most their policies, this is to protect user information and prevent fraudulent behavior. We have never had any problems with depositing money or receiving winnings from Draftkings. They are as legit as it gets and their partnerships with major companies like MLB only further add to their safe reputation.

Draftkings Promotions

Man, where do we begin here? Their promotions are endless and new ones are added almost weekly now. We have to say Draftkings has the most innovative and best contest promotions for their player base. Here is a small sampling of their most popular and largest promotions to date:

Fantasy Football

Millionaire Maker Series

In 2015, Draftkings offered one the biggest promotions ever seen in Fantasy Football. It started in week one during the 2015 NFL season, someone won $2 Million playing in the epic contest called the “Millionaire Maker”. It takes place every single weekend during the 2015 NFL season and it currently sits at a prize pool of $6M with first prize being $1,000,000.

Fantasy Football World Championships

Also in 2015, Draftkings is holding the biggest Fantasy Football Championship ever. There is $15M in total prizes up for grabs and whopping $5M to first place. It will also mark the first time daily fantasy sports has ever been televised. ESPN will air coverage from the final weekend of the championship live from Los Angeles. Ten finalists will make up the grand finale and will guarantee themselves at least $100,000 in prize money.

Fantasy Baseball

Fantasy Baseball World Championship

Every year DK rolls out a monster MLB championship contest and in 2015 it was the biggest yet. Up for grabs is $4 Million in total prizes and the top place wins $1,000,000. In addition, 80 finalists get a 4 night VIP trip to Vegas and stay at the famous Wynn casino where there will be a live viewing party.

MLB King of the Hill

A new unique promotion started by Draftkings is their King of the Hill games. The concept is to see how long you can keep a winning streak going and in the process rack up stacks of cash and prizes. You play in MLB contests for as little as $10 and if you win you get $10K plus you get entry into the next one to defend your crown. Every time you win it’s another $10K plus your winning streak adds up into additional prizes like commemorative bats and a custom VIP sports experience of a lifetime if you reach a 10 game winning streak.

Fantasy Basketball

Fantasy Basketball World Championship

2015 also brought the largest Fantasy NBA contest to date with a $2 Million prize pool and once again another $1M to one lucky DFS player. An entry fee as small as $0.25 could have won you a 5-night stay at the Aria in Vegas as well as a chance at your share of $2M in prizes.

Fantasy Golf

The rise of Fantasy Golf at Draftkings reached crazy levels in 2015 and they rewarded players with their Millionaire Maker contests for every single golf major. The biggest one being the final 4th major in August with total prizes equaling $3.3 Million. If you love fantasy golf than Draftkings is the must join site to play at hands down.

VIP Trips and Experiences

As we have mentioned often in this review, Draftkings partnerships in the sporting world allow them to offer so many cool and unique experiences that you simply won’t find anywhere else. Here’s what we are talking about:

• A chance to throw out the 1st pitch at an MLB game
• Watch MLB batting practice live on field
• Luxury boxes at horse racing’s biggest events – Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes
• Play Poker with Tiger Woods in Vegas
• UFC meet and greets with fighters and tickets to Live Events
• Trips to WWE events including Wrestlemania and Summerslam
• Entry into World Series of Poker Events

The list just keeps on growing and don’t forget you win cash prizes along with each sports experience.

Draftkings.com Ranking

We rank DK a 5 out of 5. Since day 1 they have walked the walk and continue to give daily fantasy sports players one of the best platforms to play DFS. Their staff is first class and that’s the way they treat their players. You will not find a site other than Draftkings that provides almost every fantasy sport to play in and monster prize pools to go along with them. There’s no question that you should join and be playing here, it’s where the best of the best play. They have amazing partnership deals that gives them an edge on unique contest offerings and are 1 of 2 sites currently giving away $1,000,000 consistently as a top prize. We expect them to be at the top of the heap for a very long time and continue to improve and innovate in the industry.