DraftKings released a new product to mixed reviews last week, a subscription service called DraftKings Sportsbook+ that gives customers access to unlimited parlay bonus tokens.
First reported by Sportico, DraftKings Sportsbook+ is only available to select New York customers at launch and for $20/month gives them stepped up boost tokens to improve the odds of parlays and same-game parlays. Each leg conveys an additional 10% profit increase up to 100% for 11 legs, with a max wager of $25.
It reeks of a company desperate to increase revenue in high-tax states after an attempt last summer to hit winning bettors with a surcharge was met with swift disapproval and immediately scrapped. Or a corporation doing what corporations do, trying to make more money for its shareholders, because enough is never enough. It’s probably a little of both.
If you’re already a losing bettor (which the vast majority of people are), why would you subscribe to give DK any more of your money?
I ask this but watch people do it anyway https://t.co/zHAPyzX9UP
— Prince J. Grimes (@pgprincej) January 3, 2025
That’s not to say it’s necessarily a bad idea. If people are willing to pony up the cost for a subscription, it will have been well worth DraftKings’ time and likely expand to other states. Knowing how popular parlays are, even as they typically benefit the house, that isn’t a farfetched outcome.
This thing could flop horribly too. Online sportsbooks are known to place limits on winning bettors while allowing losers to bet as much as they can stomach. Considering there’s already a built-in limit in the form of a max bet, the people who would stand to benefit the most from something like this don’t exactly have much to gain once they begin winning too much and DK decides to limit them even more.
But here’s the thing, if DraftKings Sportsbook+ fails, what did it actually cost to try? Not much. The thing we can’t dismiss is the idea that a subscription potentially prays on the most vulnerable of problem gamblers. Then again, that’s what the industry is inherently designed to do.
That’s why mixed reviews — the optimism, pessimism, celebration, condemnation, indifference and everything in between — about the service are all warranted. Because nobody knows if it’ll be successful, but DraftKings doesn’t have much to lose if it isn’t and a whole lot to gain if it is, unlike potential subscribers. Whether that’s good or bad depends which side of the aisle you stand on.
