A promotional offer roped me in
I dabble with daily fantasy sports (DFS), putting a few bucks down on an NFL lineup each week on the off chance I win a few cents. A few weeks ago, when using the DraftKings app, I was offered $50 in bonus credits if I played a $5 contest on the company’s Pick6 app. So I checked it out.
As it turns out, it’s sports betting. Specifically, it’s player prop parlay betting. I actually felt a little dumb for not having noticed Pick6 before, but I was definitely aware of similar sites like Underdog Fantasy and PrizePicks. Since I’m not big into fantasy sports and am content to just goof around with my bankroll on DraftKings, I had simply never really paid attention to anything else.
I have been able to place bets on Pick6 freely
What was amazing to me was that I live in Georgia, one of the few states where sports betting has yet to be legalized, and I have been able to place bets on Pick6 freely. So, for the last few weeks, I have been legally betting on sports in a state where it is not legal to do so. But how could this be?
A parlay by any other name….
Before we get to that, let’s go over what these sites entail. As opposed to traditional DFS sites where you put together a team of players for that day’s sports action, these sites allow you to choose whether or not an athlete will go over or under a certain statistical target and then combine more than one of those selections into an “entry.”
Get them all right and you win, get one wrong and you lose.
Does that sound like a player prop parlay? It sure does. And I don’t know about you, but that feels absolutely wild to me, especially living in a state where sportsbooks don’t exist.
These sites don’t tend to have as many options to build your parlay as do traditional sportsbooks (I’m going to just use betting terms from now on, even though the sites don’t use them), and they don’t seem to pay as well, but hell, it’s still a way to bet on sports in places you wouldn’t normally be permitted.
For example, looking at tonight’s NBA slate, I can build a $10, four-leg parlay on DraftKings’ Pick6 app of Giannis Antetokounmpo more than 32.5 points, Jayson Tatum more than 28.5 points, Kyrie Irving more than 26.5 points, and De’Aaron Fox more than 26.5 points to win $80.
On DraftKings’ regular sportsbook app right now, the same four-leg parlay would pay $117.78.
It’s technically daily fantasy sports
As for how this could possibly be legal in jurisdictions where sports betting is illegal, it appears to come down to the technical definition of daily fantasy sports.
With Pick6 and similar sites, you are betting on the performance of multiple individual players, not one player, and not on team performances. It’s the same thing in DFS, it’s just that way your wins and losses are determined is different. Regardless of the calculations, though, your entry still hinges on how multiple athletes do in their games.
Some states have caught on and have cracked down.
That’s not to say that these sites are allowed everywhere in the US. Some states have caught on and have cracked down. In February, for instance, PrizePicks agreed to pay the state of New York $15m for operating without a betting license and withdrew from the market. Florida and Arkansas also sent cease and desist letters to PrizePicks and Underdog around the same time, though both sites still offer some of their games in those states.
Whether these sites will last remains to be seen, but while they do, I’ll be happy to plop down $5 here and there to make the games a little more interesting and perhaps win a few bucks in the process. Now if only Trae Young would stop having his worst games whenever I pick him.