DraftKings First To Cross State Lines for Pro Football Pick’em National Championship

DraftKings has always been aggressive with its approach to the daily fantasy and sports gambling markets and this week, the company once again showed off how it will separate itself from its competitors this football season.

DraftKings Sportsbooks has become the first company in the United States to offer a multi-state NFL handicapping contest that will pit contestants from at least 2 different states against each other for the chance to win a prize pool of at least $2 million dollars.

Enter the DraftKings Pro Football Pick’em National Championship >>

New Hampshire and New Jersey are the first states to be included in the first-ever DK Pro Football Pick ‘Em Championship with the opportunity to have other states that DraftKings operates to join in the near future. DK Sportsbooks is currently available in West Virginia, , Pennsylvania, Indiana, Colorado, Illinois, as well as New Hampshire and New Jersey.

Those states either are home to or are in close proximity to, major sports cities like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, and Indianapolis. The potential size of this handicapping contest could be something we never been seen before. The launching of this tournament may be especially interesting to those who cannot get to Vegas during the pandemic to signup for a Vegas-based pick contest.

Johnny Avello, Director of the DraftKings SportsBook, joined Pushing The Odds on Friday to talk about the big announcement. While the Circa Million and Westgate SuperContest have always drawn interest from around the country, Avello believes his contest is one-of-a-kind.

“The difference is that this contest is it is in multiple states,” Avello said. “Right now, it’s in New Jersey. It’s in New Hampshire and we are working with other regulators to get it in other jurisdictions.”

The entry fee for the DK Pro Football Pick ‘Em Contest is $1500, $500 more than the Circa Million but the same as the Westgate SuperContest. The top prize will be $1 million dollars and like the SuperContest, the top 50 teams will get paid out at the end of the season.

Contestants will be asked to pick 5 games each week against the spread and the max number of entries is 3 teams per player. However, that is where most of the similarities between the most popular Vegas contests and this one end.

DK has decided to alter the structure of their contest to include only 16 weeks of the NFL season, choosing to drop the week 17 of the NFL altogether. They are also allowing teams to pick 2 weeks for which they will have a “bye” and not have to submit any plays. Teams will only be asked to make 70 selections during the season on stagnant lines that will be released every Wednesday.

There are great incentives to join this contest as well.

“If you go 5-0 in any one week, you get a $100 free bet,” said Avello. If the interest is high, the prize pool will grow as well. “The top prize can go higher and the prizes below that can also go higher if we reach a certain amount of entries.”

Previously, the Wire Act of 1961 was thought to prevent companies in Las Vegas from operating football pick contests outside of Nevada. The Wire Act, called that for how we used to transmit information, was passed to stop the Chicago mob from communicating with Las Vegas. It famously reads:

Whoever being engaged in the business of betting or wagering knowingly uses a wire communication facility for the transmission in interstate or foreign commerce of bets or wagers or information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers on any sporting event or contest, or for the transmission of a wire communication which entitles the recipient to receive money or credit as a result of bets or wagers, or for information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

Avello believes DraftKings has permission from the states they operate in to do this contest across state lines.

“We worked with the regulators and everyone seems to be fine with it. We’ve been able to do it now in these two states with more to come.”

Another unique feature of this contest is that you will not have to lock ALL 5 of your picks early if you want to play the Thursday Night Football game. In the other contests, you must submit all 5 picks at the same time and that means you must play Sunday’s selections on Thursday if you want to pick the Thursday Night Football game.

Not with the DK Pro Football Pick ‘Em Championship, however, and this could be extremely important in a year where Covid-19 could dramatically impact gameday rosters. We could see major stars having to sit out but news of that may only leak right before kickoff. In this contest, you have the chance to make last-minute changes.

“With our contest, you can put the Thursday night in and then you can put your other four in at a later time. We are giving you up to Sunday at 1 o’clock eastern to put your picks in. I like that flexibility for the contestant.”

For those living around New Hampshire and New Jersey, interested gamblers now have a chance to win $1 million dollars without having to come to Vegas to sign up and hire a proxy to submit their picks each week. Those savings alone could help to fund hundreds of teams.

“Hopefully the contest will grow, not only this year in multiple states, but in years to come. That’s our goal. To have this thing everywhere.”

The contest will begin when the NFL starts their season, hopefully in mid-September.

Enter the DraftKings Pro Football Pick’em National Championship >>

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Matt Perrault is a featured writer at BettingPros and the host of the Daily Juice podcast. For more from Matt, check out his archive and follow him @sportstalkmatt.