DraftKings Rolls Out New Betting Bonuses as Company Faces Losses and Addiction Criticism
US betting operator DraftKings is promoting sign-up bonus bets tied to the NFL preseason, though the offer's terms differ between sources, even as the company reports financial losses and faces public criticism over gambling addiction.
US sportsbook operator DraftKings is actively promoting a new sign-up bonus for first-time users this week, while separate reporting highlights both the company's financial struggles and the toll gambling addiction can take on customers.
The offer and its conflicting terms
According to Sports Illustrated, tied to the NFL preseason finale between the Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs on August 28, DraftKings is offering new customers up to $200 in bonus bets. To qualify, users must make a minimum $5 deposit and place a qualifying $5 bet; the bonus is then paid out as eight $25 bonus bets, released two at a time every seven days over 21 days, with each bonus bet expiring seven days after issuance.
New Jersey 101.5, citing Covers.com, describes a different, New Jersey-specific offer instead: a "Bet $5, Get $150" deal paid out as six $25 bonus bets (two released every seven days over 14 days), requiring the qualifying wager to be placed at odds of -500 or longer. The bonus amount, payout schedule and qualifying conditions therefore differ depending on the source and region — neither offer requires a promo code, but the specific details do not match.
New Jersey 101.5 also notes that bonus bets are not equivalent to cash: when a bonus bet wins, the stake itself is not returned, so actual profit is smaller than the headline number suggests. The outlet cites the scale of the US commercial sports betting industry — $16.89 billion in revenue in 2025, up 22.6% from the year before — and notes that rules on deducting gambling losses on tax returns changed starting with the 2026 tax year.
Addiction concerns and company finances
24/7 Wall St. describes a case from "The Ramsey Show," where a caller named Joey, 31 days sober from gambling, described running up $28,000 in debt, since paid down to $23,000 spread across four credit cards. Host Dave Ramsey told him: "DraftKings is not a blessing to your life," calling sports betting one of the fastest things destroying young men in their 20s.
As reported by the same outlet, DraftKings posted a Sports Net Revenue Margin of 6.8% in the second quarter of 2026, with $13.1 billion in sports betting volume, yet the company still reported a GAAP net loss of $67.6 million on revenue of $1.44 billion, down 4.6% year over year. DraftKings shares closed at $25 on August 26, down 48% over the trailing year.
A related court case on prediction markets
Ars Technica reports on a separate but related sports-betting legal dispute: a US court ruled that sports contracts offered by prediction-market platform Kalshi are, in substance, gambling rather than "swaps," meaning they fall under Nevada's state gambling laws rather than being covered exclusively by federal CFTC jurisdiction. In a concurring opinion, Judge Kenneth Lee wrote that the outcome of a sports game cannot reasonably be called an event tied to a financial or commercial consequence as required under the CFTC's definition of a swap.
