The start of the football season is generally one of the biggest months of the year for sportsbooks—particularly when it comes to marketing those books.
From deposit matches to boosted odds and risk-free bets, all sorts of free money are set aside for potential gamblers as long as they continue logging into apps. DraftKings may have been a bit too successful with its latest promotion.
To begin the NFL year, the company launched an “Early Win Up 10” promotion on select games. The concept was simple: if the team you bet on goes up by 10 points at any moment during the game, your bet automatically cashes.
According to Action Network’s Avery Yang, that led to the company paying out $75 million bets on early wins over the first two weeks of the season. And that was more than enough for DraftKings to “halt” the promotion.
It’s unclear how long the pause will last or if the promotion will make a full return. DraftKings runs a similar “Up 7 Early Win” promotion for Thursday Night Football that will continue for Week 3 between the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers.
Per Yang, a $100 bettor using the promo would be up a profit of as much as $1,150 for $2,900 total risked. That’s an ROI of 39 percent based on the first two weeks of the promotion:
The $75 million figure for how much the sportsbook paid out as a result of the promotions only factors in teams that went up seven or 10 points.
It does not count, for instance, bets on the Dolphins or Cardinals, who overcame 21- and 16-point fourth quarter deficits to win on Sunday.
While neither team led by 10 — meaning the promotion didn’t apply — more bettors put wagers on the two teams because of the early win assurance.
In other words, the true value of the amount paid out by DraftKings on those games may be significantly higher since both sides were declared winners at various points due to the promotion.
Considering DraftKings is one of the major sportsbooks in the United States, it remains to be seen what impact this will have on promotions offered by competitors. PointsBet, for example, has made discretionary decisions to already grade some season-long NFL futures.
In any case, this is just another reminder to shop around for promotions before you place a bet.
Gannett may earn revenue from sports betting operators for audience referrals to betting services. Sports betting operators have no influence over nor are any such revenues in any way dependent on or linked to the newsrooms or news coverage. See applicable operator site for its terms and conditions. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, help is available. Call the National Council on Problem Gambling 24/7 at 1-800-GAMBLER. Must be 21 or older to gamble.
.