DraftKings entices Responsible Gaming tools usage with NFL tickets
Published:
Sep 1, 2025
,
02:41 p.m.
ET
As Responsible Gaming Education Month and the 2025 NFL season kick off, DraftKings Sportsbook is trying a novel approach to incentivize users to engage with Responsible Gaming tools. They have launched a sweepstakes program that rewards bettors for using RG features in their sportsbook app. The campaign offers NFL tickets, including a grand prize trip to Super Bowl LX, to customers who engage with responsible play resources, including “My Budget Builder” and “My Stat Sheet.”
The initiative may signal a shift in how gambling operators approach player protection. Instead of simply making RG tools available and optional, DraftKings is going a step further by incentivizing their use, blending entertainment with harm-reduction strategies at a time when wagering activity spikes nationwide.
DraftKings compels bettors to use RG tools
The campaign is structured to gamify responsible play throughout Responsible Gaming Education Month with a series of actions that users must complete to be eligible for prizes.
Customers who use My Budget Builder between August 26 and September 8 are entered to win tickets to an NFL regular-season game.
Additional weekly contests encourage players to set reminder alerts or explore “Smart Betting Tips” within DraftKings’ Responsible Gaming Center.
Those who use My Stat Sheet, a tool that summarizes individual play activity, are entered into the drawing for the grand prize: a trip to Super Bowl LX.
DraftKings Chief Responsible Gaming Officer Lori Kalani further explained the strategy: “This campaign recognizes and celebrates customers who use these resources, helping to foster a more informed and responsible gaming culture.”
In addition, DraftKings rolled out its new “Code of Responsible Play” to millions of customers ahead of NFL kickoff, reinforcing its message that responsible gaming should be central to the fan experience.
Responsible Gaming tools are not new. Limits around deposits, wager amounts, time, cool-off periods and self-exclusion options have been part of the standard operating procedure for a while, but DraftKings’ initiative is notable (and noble) in that it is a shift from passive availability to active rewards-based inducement.
If this becomes an industry-wide trend of leveraging technology, rewards and gamification to make safer play habits stick, DraftKings could be leading a breakthrough in normalizing healthier and more sustainable gambling behaviors.
Are Responsible Gaming tools like deposit limits mandatory? Should they be?
Whether players are required to set deposit or time limits depends largely on jurisdiction.
Looking at a more mature sports betting like Great Britain, beginning October 31 the UK Gambling Commission will require all new customers to set a financial limit before making their first deposit. Players can adjust limits later, but operators must prompt them every six months to review their account details.
In the U.S., many states require operators to offer tools like deposit limits and play reminders, but usage by bettors is voluntary. Some states impose stronger measures and have proposed legislation around uniform deposit limits, but those have often been met with strong opposition.
Steps like the one DraftKings has taken here show a gradual shift from RG tools being optional to encouraged and incentivized. We’ll have to wait and see if the next step is mandatory limits setting at some point in the future.
DraftKings also bans credit cards for funding
Separate from the NFL tickets RG sweepstakes, DraftKings has also banned the use of credit cards for funding, in what they say should improve user experience by sparing customers from cash advance fees and high interest rates. As some industry analysts noted, many players are automatically charged the cash-advance rate when they fund accounts with credit cards, which can become financially burdensome.
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Email help@bircheshealth.com
