DraftKings’ online sportsbook is one of the leading sports betting sites in the US. You can get started at DraftKings in states where it is legal with a welcome bonus.
No promo code is necessary to activate this offer. But you only get one shot at this deal. How much should you deposit? Should you bet on favorites or long shots? Should you just do your usual home-team betting?
We’ll walk through all the relevant details of the DraftKings welcome offer to help you answer those questions.
DraftKings new player welcome offer
| DraftKings promo code | None – Click to claim promo |
| Bonus bet | [ct id=8 slug=draftkings-free-bet] with minimum $5 deposit |
| First deposit match | 20% up to [ct id=7 slug=draftkings-bonus-amount] |
| Total DraftKings promo | Up to [ct id=9 slug=dk-full-bonus] |
| Legal states | [ct id=47 slug=draftkings-sb-legal-states] |
The DraftKings welcome bonus breaks down into two parts. A Draft Kings free bonus bet you get with your first deposit, and a 20% matching bonus based on that deposit.
For the bonus bet part of your offer, your deposit size doesn’t matter. Making the minimum deposit of $5 would maximize your return, as you’d get a bonus bet worth 10x the amount of your deposit.
However, you also need to factor in the first-deposit bonus. We’ll break this down in more detail below.
Using the DraftKings promo code
As there is no promo code necessary to activate this bonus (just click here to claim), getting started is pretty straightforward:
- Head over to the DraftKings new-player landing page.
- Follow the instructions to sign up for your account, including providing some personal information and choosing a username and password.
- Make your first deposit on the site.
And that’s it. DraftKings will apply the [ct id=8 slug=draftkings-free-bet] bonus bet and 20% deposit matching bonus to your account, and you’re good to go.
Using the DraftKings welcome bonuses
Different people approach sportsbook welcome bonuses in different ways. Some people prefer to focus on safer bets to increase their chances of showing a profit. Others like to really go for it and bet on long shots, hoping for a larger payoff.
And some people would prefer not to overthink it, and bet as they usually would. Maybe they only want to bet on their favorite teams and players, or they just don’t really want to get into crunching numbers and probabilities. For these bettors, bonuses are just extra funds to play with and give them a little head start as they get going at DraftKings.
There’s no definitive right or wrong answer here. Do what feels best to you. Here are the main things to remember:
- There is no foolproof system. It’s possible, no matter how good the welcome bonus is, that you end up losing money. Be sure you are depositing an amount you are comfortable losing in the event it does not go well for your bets.
- If you are going to bet on sports, the bonuses that betting sites offer can be worthwhile. They are never really “free money,” but you may be able to turn them into that.
Maximizing the DraftKings $50 bonus bet
This is the more straightforward part of the DraftKings welcome offer. If your first deposit is for $5 or more, you unlock this [ct id=8 slug=draftkings-free-bet] bet credit.
As we mentioned, if you just wanted to maximize this part of the promotion, you would deposit $5 and grab the [ct id=8 slug=draftkings-free-bet] bet. But that doesn’t factor in the deposit matching bonus, which we’ll review below.
Probably the most important factor in deciding what to do with the bonus bet is that you do not keep the [ct id=8 slug=draftkings-free-bet] from the bet itself if it wins; you only keep the winnings. Let’s look at these NFL betting lines as an example:
If you use the [ct id=8 slug=draftkings-free-bet] bet to take the moneyline on the favored Vikings at -325, the payout on a winning bet would be $15.38. Not $50 plus $15.38, which is what it would be if you were wagering $50 cash.
If you bet on the underdog Lions at +270, you would receive $135 on a winning bet. Again, you’re not getting the original [ct id=8 slug=draftkings-free-bet] back.
The underdog pays out almost nine times as much in this situation. If the original bet came back to you like in a normal bet, the underdog would instead pay out less than three times what the favorite pays. This explains why many bettors are much more likely to bet on the underdog than the favorite with the bonus bet.
However, you can still maximize your chances of winning and take the Vikings here. Or maybe you’re just a big Vikings fan and don’t care much about the smaller payout — you’re just looking for another reason to root for your team.
But if your motivation is to maximize this offer, you should bet on the Lions in this scenario, even while accepting you have a significantly higher chance of losing the bet. The almost nine-times return compared to betting on the Vikings is too good to pass up.
A middle ground would be finding something where the odds are closer. A bet with -110 odds, for example, would pay you around $45.45 on a successful wager, with a higher chance of winning than a long shot. It’s a compromise of sorts between a decent payoff and a higher chance at winning.
Maximizing the deposit bonus
Unlike the bonus bet, with the deposit bonus you actually do get the bonus funds back on winning bets. The tricky part is that you don’t get the bonus funds immediately; you have to clear them. This significantly complicates your decision-making process when it comes to deposit size. There’s no sense making a huge deposit if you won’t be able to clear the bonus (unless you were going to make that deposit anyway).
You will get 20% of your initial deposit back. The minimum deposit is $5, which would equal a $1 bonus. And the maximum for this offer would be a $5,000 deposit, resulting in a [ct id=7 slug=draftkings-bonus-amount] bonus.
Here are the key terms:
- You release $1 for every $25 you wager on the site.
- You have 90 days to clear the bonus.
- Only bets with odds of -300 or longer count toward clearing bonuses.
So if you went all-out and deposited $5,000 for a [ct id=7 slug=draftkings-bonus-amount] bonus, you would need to wager $25,000 in total within 90 days to clear your entire bonus.
But how valuable is this offer? Should you bet more than you normally would to chase the whole bonus? This is not quite the no-brainer of the bonus bet.
As we have to bet $25 for every $1 we get back, from a certain perspective, this is not really a 20% offer. It’s a 4% offer. That’s definitely still something, but we don’t think it’s high enough to justify betting way outside your usual comfort zone.
If we think of the DraftKings vig as being around 5%, then 4% cash back still puts you slightly behind (assuming you just flipped a coin when picking your bets and didn’t have any other edge).
That may not sound great. But on the other hand, that 4% back is still obviously worth claiming if you are going to be betting anyway. Even if you think of it as just radically reducing the vig, getting those bonus funds back will still improve your results over time (assuming you still make the same bets you would have anyway).
Our recommendation is to be realistic about how much you intend to bet over the 90 days you have to clear the bonus, and then deposit 20% of that amount (up to the maximum $5,000 for the bonus match). Here’s how that math works.
Say you like to bet $50, and you always make one bet per day no matter what. (OK, this probably describes absolutely nobody, but it’s just an example.) Fifty dollars every day for 90 days is $4,500. You will get 4% back on the $4,500, for $180 in bonuses. To have $180 in bonuses available to you, you would need to have deposited $900.
What you don’t want to do is make a small deposit if you know you will deposit again if it runs out anyway. You don’t want to make numerous $100 deposits over the course of the first three months if you’re a frequent bettor because, in that case, you have essentially given up the 20% in bonus funds for every deposit after the first.
However, we can’t stress enough that there is huge variance in sports betting. Four percent bonus clearing is not enough to counter a bad losing streak. You should never deposit more than you are OK with potentially losing. But with that very important caveat in mind, we recommend depositing as much as you believe you will bet over your first 90 days on the site.
FAQS
What is the DraftKings promo code?
You don’t need a DraftKings promo code to activate the best DraftKings welcome offer. Just click through to the DraftKings new player page and follow the sign-up instructions.
Is DraftKings sportsbook legit?
Yes, DraftKings has been around for quite some time, first as a daily fantasy sports site, and now also as a sportsbook and online casino. It operates in most states where online sportsbooks are legal in the US, and always with the proper licenses and regulatory approval.
Where is DraftKings available?
DraftKings’ online sportsbook is currently available in legal states. The next potential states to join that list include Ohio, Maryland, and Massachusetts.