Renowned for being a pioneer of daily fantasy sports, DraftKings is also credited with being New Jersey’s first ever legal online sportsbook. Since DraftKings New Jersey Sportsbook launched in August 2018, it has been a huge success, reportedly taking over one million bets in its first month alone. While DraftKings isn’t a traditional sportsbook operator, it has brought fresh innovation to the industry and looks set to become one of the biggest betting brands in the United States.

DraftKings is licensed by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE). The license to operate a sportsbook is issued to Resorts Casino Atlantic City, which partners with DraftKings as New Jersey law stipulates that online sportsbook licenses will only be issued to businesses that have physical casino properties in the state. However, for all intents and purposes, the sportsbook is a DraftKings product. A link to the DraftKings’ licensing details can be found on the bottom of the homepage.

DraftKings is, of course, one of the world’s most recognizable fantasy sports brands and has been in operation since 2012. The latest encryption methods are used by DraftKings to secure all financial transactions you make on the site. A full explanation of data protection policies can be found in the help section. DraftKings also uses strong authentication – an extra layer of security for accessing your account with a pin code through a mobile device.

You’ll find all bases covered in terms of payment methods. A minimum deposit of $5 means you can try the sportsbook without breaking the bank, and high rollers can request larger maximum limits than $2,000 for their account. In addition, you can move funds across from DraftKings Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) account if you have one. Withdrawal times vary, with requests processed Monday through Friday.

The DraftKings Sportsbook App is available to download for Apple devices – iPhones, iPad, iPod Touch – and will require iOS 10.0 or later. You can download the app from the Apple App Store for free.

Google does not yet allow gambling apps to be downloaded from the Play Store when located in New Jersey. However, you can download the official DraftKings Android App for your mobile handset from its website.  

How to download the DraftKings Sportsbook Android App for handheld devices:

•         Go to DraftKings Sportsbook NJ.
•         Select the Download icon.
•         Check “Trust DKSPORTSBOOK.APK FILE”. You may be prompted to go to settings and allow installs from your current source.
•         Once downloaded, you will then be prompted to sign up to DraftKings or enter your login details if you have a DFS account.

The DraftKings sportsbook app is effectively the same as the desktop site, although it’s arguably a bit easier to get around as the betting content is more compartmentalized. The same lines and choice of betting markets are offered across all platforms, as well as the same promotions and customer service features.

DraftKings NJ has a headline welcome offer which seems reasonably generous and, thankfully, has some very clear terms and conditions attached to it.

You will be given a free bet up to the value of $500 when registering, depositing and making your first bet at DraftKings. The value of the free bet is matched 100% to your first bet. There are no significant restrictions applied to the free bet, although it is worth remembering that the stake amount is not returned with a free bet (this is standard across the industry). For example, if you placed a winning free bet of $100 at odds of 2.50 (+150.00), you would receive $150, whereas a standard bet would return $250 ($150 winnings + $100 original stake). You have 30 days in which to use your free bet.

Aside from the welcome offer, we would judge DraftKings’ range of innovative seasonal promotions to be one its strongest suits. For example, during July 2019 DraftKings had a tennis betting promotion on the Wimbledon Championship, which offered a $1 free bet each time your selected player served an ace during a Wimbledon match from the quarterfinals through to the final. This required an opt-in and a $25 bet on your selected player. Thus, if you had selected Roger Federer, you would have earned $12 in free bets from his quarter-final victory over Ken Nishikori as the Swiss legend hit 12 aces in that match.

There are also regular promos that involve enhanced odds (there are daily odds boosts on major sports on the site), and DraftKings can also put Profit Boost Tokens in your account. These work in a similar manner to enhanced odds, except that you choose the market (some restrictions can apply). For example, you could receive a 25% Boost Token, changing the returns from a $100 money line bet at 2.10 from $210 to $238.50. Alongside this, DraftKings also runs regular betting promos – sometimes linked to DFS – and has an offer of $50 if you refer a friend to the sportsbook.

DraftKings’ betting promotions hold up when compared to rival NJ sportsbooks. The $500 free bet is equal to those offered by FanDuel and 888sport, and it doesn’t come attached with any hidden catches. We would like to see a no-deposit bonus offer added to really give DraftKings top marks, but it makes up for it somewhat with the nice range of innovative promos on the site.

We mentioned earlier that the DraftKings app has easier navigation than the desktop site. It’s not exactly a criticism, but the sportsbook can be a little overwhelming in terms of its layout. For example, all the betting lines feel like they are layered on top of each other on the homepage, something that isn’t helped by the split gray on dark gray color scheme. However, you get used to it after a while, and you can find markets and promos easily using the tabs on top of the screen. We would prefer the style of a sportsbook like 888sport NJ or BetAmerica, but, again, it’s not the most important consideration.

DraftKings uses Kambi as the main software provider. Kambi is a specialist in providing betting solutions and has years of experience in the industry, so you should have no fear about the reliability of the sportsbook. Kambi is the software provider for other NJ online sportsbooks, including 888sport.

DraftKings offers betting markets for 15 sports, including all major US sports leagues, college sports, tennis, soccer, boxing, rugby and cricket. We would like to see some further niche sports added to the sportsbook, including lacrosse, pool, athletics and winter sports. However, DraftKings will check all the boxes for most US bettors. Moreover, the range and quality of betting markets for each sport is certainly decent. We counted 37 unique betting lines in a random MLB regular season match-up and 88 unique lines in an MLS game. DraftKings offers teasers on football and basketball betting lines, or combinations of both sports.

As for the odds quality, an important issue needs to be addressed; For a period of a few weeks starting in August 2018, DraftKings operated as the only New Jersey online sportsbook. Essentially, it operated without competition for that period, and reviewers were quick to pan the competitivity of DraftKings’ odds when the site launched for the first time. Obviously, there is increased competition now and DraftKings seems to have risen to the challenge.

As a test, we compared the market for the 2019 NBA Championship, putting DraftKings up against FanDuel and playMGM. We found that DraftKings had the lowest price for the favorite, LA Clippers, and the second lowest price for the next favorite, LA Lakers. However, DraftKings beat both playMGM and FanDuel in giving the highest price for several of the middle-ranking teams, such as Boston Celtics and Houston Rockets. Looking around the other betting lines in MLB and soccer games and comparing them to other sportsbooks, we would be fairly happy to recommend DraftKings’ quality of odds, which we rate as solid, if not spectacular.

We mentioned earlier that you can switch between a DraftKings DFS account and the sportsbook, and you can also instantly access an online casino through the sportsbook. This allows you to play slots, poker, blackjack and roulette instantly. We should also bring your attention to the pools section of the site, which offers a form of exchange betting. You can create pools with friends and family, or other bettors, with the odds determined by the volume of bets placed on each market.

As a pioneer of DFS, you would expect DraftKings to have a sportsbook with a leading in-play betting platform. To be frank, it’s a little underwhelming. At a minimum, you should expect a top live betting platform to have animations and statistics updating in real time. DraftKings offered neither when we checked during live Wimbledon tennis games and African Cup of Nations soccer games. And while there is a wide range of live betting lines for all major sports, we really think DraftKings has the tools and experience to do a bit more with its live betting platform.

We should add, however, that there were no problems with bugginess or update speed when it came to betting odds. Indeed, DraftKings has created a tool called Flash Bet, which, as the name suggests, allows you to make superfast bets on sports games. For example, it allows for point by point markets when betting live on tennis.