draftkings free contest

How To Play At DraftKings

Pepole PDFS Month January 1, 2017

So you are wondering How to Play on DraftKings.com, a top partner site of ours. Well, you have come to the right place because we are going to walk you through the whole process, from signing up to playing your very first fantasy contest. This is a simple straight-forward guide for all new or beginner players including step-by-step instructions for creating an account. Draftkings is one of our top featured sponsors.

Make sure to read below for details on how all new users can get a FREE DraftKings contest!

draftkings leagues

Why Play at DraftKings?

Before we get started on how to play, let's look at just a few reasons of why you should be playing fantasy sports at DraftKings:

  • Prize Pools - DraftKings has by far the biggest cash prizes in DFS. During the NFL season they host their famous Millionaire Maker contests where first prize is a crazy $1 Million.  For as little as a $3 entry fee you can be regularly playing for prize pools upwards of $500,000.
  • Sports Offered - if you are looking for a wide variety of fantasy sports contests then Draftkings has it all. They currently offer NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, Golf, Soccer, MMA and even Esports contests.

There are countless other reasons DraftKings is at the top of the DFS industry and after playing daily fantasy sports since the very beginning I can say without hesitation they are one of the best.

Play At DraftKings In 5 Easy Steps

It might seem a bit overwhelming for new players to get started playing at DK but it can be broken done into 5 easy steps.  We will take you through each one and you should be ready to get going in no time.

  1. Create a DraftKings account
  2. Add funds to your account (optional)
  3. Choose a contest from the lobby
  4. Draft your fantasy sports team
  5. Follow along with live scoring

Step 1 - Create A DraftKings Account

Ok first things first we have to create an account at DraftKings before we can do anything else. Depending on how you get to their site you could be greeted by a few different landing pages so to keep things simple we outline how to sign-up using our sponsored landing page links like this one - DraftKings.com. So once on the landing page do the following:

  • Click the Play Now button (or Sign Me Up button on alternative pages)
  • Fill in the fields on the popup window which include a username, password, email, country and date of birth
  • Click register button once complete (or sign-up button)

That's it you have now created an account on DraftKings and you are ready for the next step.

Note

You may encounter some landing pages that have an optional promo code field. Darftkings offers all new users a free contest ticket with their first deposit. You do not need a code to get this offer.  When you use our links the free ticket will be automatically applied after your first deposit.

Step 2 - Add Funds To Your Account

From this point on you will have two options, you can either:

  1. Play contests for free
  2. Play contests using real money

Playing for free is always an excellent option for your wallet but at the end of the day it is extremely hard to win these contents and if you do win the prize pools are generally small. However, I do recommend you start out playing a few freerolls to learn the point systems and develop winning strategies.

Once you are ready to go after the big prizes and start playing with real money you will want to deposit into your new account.  Here are the steps to make a deposit:

  • Hover over your username to bring up the drop-down menu, click "My Account"
  • Under account details click the Deposit button
  • Choose how much you wish to deposit on the secure Draftkings deposit page. You can choose the pre-determined amounts of $25, $100, $250, $600 or put in your own custom amount in the Other box
  • After you select the amount you can now fill in your personal payment details. You can deposit using Paypal, Visa, MasterCard, AMEX or Discover
  • Click continue button once you have finished entering details

Free DraftKings Contest Ticket

When you use our DraftKings link you will notice your free ticket offer at the top of the deposit screen. This is a special bonus for all new users and your free ticket will be applied to your account after your very first deposit.  You must deposit a minimum of $5 to get your free contest.

draftkings promo ticket

Step 3 - Choose A Contest From Lobby

Once our account is funded it is on to the fun stuff, picking our contests and actually playing the game. Now that you have an account the Draftkings lobby is going to be your main landing page, you can always get to the lobby by clicking the "lobby" tab at the very top of the Draftkings page.

You will by default be on the featured tab of the sports contest menu when first hitting the DraftKings lobby. These are usually all the huge prize pool contests like Millionaire Makers and it's a quick and easy way to enter all the top contests of the day. However, you usually want to be a little more selective and filter out contests that best fit your needs. This is how to use the contest filters:

  • Select the sport you wish to play from the 2nd top menu, the sports tabs are NFL, NBA, SOC, NHL, GOLF, MMA, MLB, CFL, NAS and eSports
  • Once you select a sport you will see a new filter menu to the left of the contests. Here you can filter out the different contest types including Tournaments, Head to Head, 50/50's, Multipliers and Qualifiers. When you select a filter it will refresh the contests and only show the type you selected
  • At the top of the left menu you will also see an entry fee filter. You can filter out the contests from highest to lowest entry fee
  • Below the contest filters there is an advanced filter. Here you can the field size, guaranteed prize pool contests only and contests you have a ticket for

If you are a new or beginner player you will also see contest filters for beginner only contests and casual player contests.

Step 4 - Draft Your Fantasy Team

For each contest in the lobby you will see the title, the entry fee, total prize pool, field size and contest start time. To get a more details on each contest you can click the title name to launch a more detailed popup window. When you have spotted a contest you wish to play just click the enter button to the right of all the details. This will now take you into the draft selection screen where you can begin to build your team. It's important to remember you are not officially in a contest to you draft your team and confirm afterwards. Here are the steps to draft your fantasy team:

  • Your players will be on the left with each separated into positional tabs. Cycle through the tabs to see each group or click on the "All" tab to see very position
  • When you want to draft a player click the green "+" symbol beside the player details. The player will now appear on the right in your lineup screen
  • Above your lineup is your salary cap allotment and average money left per player
  • Above the players you will see a row of all the games being played eligible for that specific contest.  You can click on the team names to filter out players just to that specific game
  • Once your team is complete and you are under the salary cap click the enter button to officially join the contest

You can also a reserve a spot in the field by clicking the reserve button on the draft screen. This leaves a un-drafted team but your entry in the contest is guaranteed. Just make sure you draft your team by contest start time otherwise your left with no team and a big fat zero score.

Step 5 - Follow Along With Live Scoring

When your team is drafted and you have entered all your contests for one night, the real fun begins. It is time to sweat out your results with live scoring during the games. DraftKings live scoring allows you watch your fantasy players accumulate points in real-time as the games are going on. In general, it takes anywhere from 60-120 seconds for the live scoring to automatically refresh itself. DraftKings has hands down the best live scoring in all of DFS.  Here is how you get to the live scoring screens:

  • When on the Draftkings website click the "Contests" menu at the very top of the page
  • This will show you all the contests you currently are entered in. You will see bullet buttons for Live Contests, Upcoming Contests and Completed Contests. Make sure you are set to the Live tab
  • To view an individual contest click the Live button beside each contest name
  • You should now be in the Live scoring screen and can follow along as your players get points
  • If you have multiple lineups in one contest you can click the "Show Only Mine" bullet at the top of the standings screen
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