BIG-TIME SPORTSBOOK: Salutations, sports bettors! We’re so glad to see you again. It’s hard to believe we’ve only seen you twice since March Madness. No bother. Take a seat over here in front of the big screen. Your beloved [your NFL team’s mascot here] are about to kick off.
SPORTS BETTOR: Oh, cool. Got any beer?
BIG-TIME SPORTSBOOK: Wow. Yeah. But first, let’s take a look at what we’re thinking you’ll love this season.
(End scene.)
With the most bountiful season of the sports betting harvest about to begin, legal sportsbooks in the United States have tinkered and tested in hopes of putting the most interesting (read: profitable) options in front of droves of casual bettors who largely go dormant during the summer. They leverage their vision of their customer base to concoct what they think is the proper mix of promotions, interaction, and markets, delivered fast and efficiently. Beginning Thursday night.
“Our summers tend to orient around a real race to the start of the season,” DraftKings Chief Product Officer Corey Gottlieb told InGame. “Lots and lots going on here.”
The American Gaming Association predicts that $30 billion will be spent on legal NFL betting in the next six months. And the likes of DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics, and Caesars want a hefty tailgate-bean-dip-sized portion of it.
InGame takes a tour around the stadium parking lot:
DraftKings
The boardroom goal for DraftKings this year, Gottlieb said, is for the company to move “at the speed of sports” and for “customers to understand that we are authentically fluidly moving the way that a customer consumes sports.”
What does that mean where the thumb meets the touchscreen?
DraftKings bettors, Gottlieb believes, don’t just want a screen full of bets, but a curated list tethered to the storylines and biases they bring to a game.
“I don’t think our customers want just a giant library of every bet they can make on Eagles-Cowboys,” he explained. “I think they want the five biggest headlines that are already in their head as a consumer of that game: Will Dak Prescott have a bounce-back season this year and start with a 300-plus-yard passing game? Is this going to be a blowout where there’s a parlay and I can combine three different legs of a touchdown scorer among the wide receivers in this game?
“I think those narrative guardrails being there for the customer limit choice in a way that’s actually very helpful. It doesn’t mean that we won’t have a full library of what people want to bet on, but I think deliberately leading it to headlines and narratives that sit authentically in the mind of a sports fan already about that game are pretty fundamental to avoiding the pitfall of [being overwhelmed].”
DraftKings, Gottlieb said, will have upward of 50% more live betting markets than any competitor, leaning hard into becoming the place, he said, for touchdown markets. Bettors will be able to track these prop bets in a RedZone-like feature that alerts them when one of their players is getting close to paydirt.
DraftKings will also continue to view itself as a social network for bettors.
“We have this unique sort of social infrastructure, whether it’s the ability to tail bets, the ability to join big groups of your friends or other bettors around a particular event, this whole notion of FOMO and knowing where other people’s opinions are is a huge part of this idea of discourse and narrative and the speed of sports,” Gottlieb said.
Among DraftKings’ new features this season is a “Ghost Leg” parlay, which allows bettors to ghost one losing leg on a three-plus-leg parlay, and be paid out on the remaining legs. According to DraftKings, more than 30 million parlays of this size lost because of one leg last season.
Caesars
Caesars Sportsbook is entering its first NFL season powered by its proprietary technology platform, promising faster performance and more betting options.
The app now carries two to three times more markets than past seasons, highlighted by themed same-game parlays and expanded prop bets, including head-to-head matchups. “Quick Picks” allow users to build parlays before or during games.
Cash-out functionality has been broadened to include player props, same-game parlays, and super parlays. Live wagering now features pre-built parlay options, real-time player stat tracking, and an overhauled bet slip.
The “Watch and Bet” feature returns with live streaming of NFL games and nearly 200,000 other matches available directly through the app.
Caesars also introduced NFL Flips, a weekly game where users can earn bonus bets and profit boosts, with extra plays available on Thursdays and Sundays.
For the first time, the book is offering progressive jackpots tied to in-game milestones. The “50 Burger” pays if a team scores 50 points, while the “$1 Million Parlay Payday” and other pools give bettors a chance at shares of a $50,000 weekly prize. If no one wins, the jackpot rolls over, increasing by $50,000 each week.
Fanatics
Fanatics has launched a few new programs, including accepting FanCash directly for wagers instead of requiring cash deposits. Users toggle FanCash mode in their betslip and enter wager amounts up to their available balance.
FanCash bets earn real cash winnings while providing automatic odds boosts when configured. Winnings return as FanCash, with the original stake excluded.
Fanatics also launched Live v2.0 with player props integrated into live betting pages. The update groups alternate lines and spreads for faster navigation and include period markets organized within market tabs.
Player props now appear directly on live pages, reducing clicks when adding player props to same-game parlays.
Additionally, the redesigned My Bets page adds sport and team imagery with effortless carousel navigation. New bet cards display winning moments and fair play treatment details to keep users engaged.
FanDuel
FanDuel allows customers to parlay both team-based futures and player-based futures. As an example, in the past, customers could not parlay Bengals winning 10.5 games and finishing second in their division. Now, that’s possible with FanDuel. Fans can also parlay things like Joe Burrow to throw for 35+ passing touchdowns and Ja’Marr Chase to have 12+ receiving touchdowns.
Customers could even parlay all four of those things to truly parlay their own season the way they see it shaking out.
Drive markets continue to evolve as well. As with last season, fans can SGP on markets such as drive result and player to catch a pass on that drive.
This season, FanDuel is also offering X Drive X+ Player props. This gives customers unprecedented flexibility in how they bet pre-live and live player props, allowing customers to bet how many passing, rushing, or receiving yards a player will have on a given drive.
They can also SGP those with the drive results or player to catch a pass bets, offering the opportunity to customize exactly how they see the current drive in a game playing out.
Hard Rock Bet
Hard Rock has rolled out product enhancements for NFL betting. The platform now features Genius Sports’ BetVision technology and launched a Stats Hub that gives bettors access to analytics and data for NFL wagering.
The sportsbook also introduced weekly Legendary Reward Drops, integrated with Unity by Hard Rock so customers can bet on NFL games and use points toward hotel stays, concerts, and other offerings. The platform added parlay insurance, no sweat bets, and profit boosts for NFL wagering.
ESPN Bet
One of the “World Wide Leader’s” key additions this season in FanCenter, which integrates a customer’s favorite teams and fantasy league players to collate potential bets.
Jeff Edelstein contributed to this report
