FanDuel and DraftKings have had a Coke and Pepsi thing going on for a while now.
To extend the analogy further, DraftKings Sportsbook may have launched its own version of Wild Cherry Pepsi recently.
Just in time for football season, DraftKings is live with a same-game parlays feature, allowing users to pile multiple legs from a single game onto a single bet. The feature was added through the DraftKings data deal with Genius Sports.
This addition very much moves DraftKings to the FanDuel Sportsbook corner, which is smart, given FanDuel’s standing as the nation’s leading sportsbook, as well as the front-runner in the Michigan sports betting market.
Parlays within a game weren’t always available at sportsbooks
Parlays are a favored form of sports bets, particularly for the house.
Folks have long filled out parlay cards, joining different individual bets together for often long-shot odds. You need to hit all of the legs to win the bet.
Traditionally, you couldn’t parlay different bets within the same game, though, which makes sense.
Say you thought the only way the Detroit Lions could cover a spread against Green Bay last year was to hit some deep passes and turned the game into a shootout.
So, you might parlay the Lions spread bet, along with the over on the total points scored, and a player prop on Matthew Stafford to throw for more than 300 yards.
Sportsbooks were hesitant to give you the traditional parlay odds boosts for those bets, because the outcomes are somewhat intertwined.
FanDuel was first to market with Same Game Parlays
As an added betting option, FanDuel Sportsbook was the first to market with its Same Game Parlay.
FanDuel built marketing campaigns around the feature, which used a tool to calculate parlay odds a little differently than its regular parlay calculator. The feature was live with FanDuel at the outset of Michigan online sports betting in January.
Shortly after launch, PointsBet Sportsbook came aboard with its own Single Game Parlay option, which works the same way. BetMGM Sportsbook later added its own.
(Also notice the different variations of the title: FanDuel has trademarked “Same Game Parlay,” while PointsBet calls them “Single Game Parlay” and DraftKings uses “Same Game Parlays.” At BetMGM, they are called a “One Game Parlay” and are only available for soccer and basketball.)
DraftKings adds feature with bonus bet promotion
DraftKings launched its Same Game Parlays last week and gave customers a $10 bonus baseball bet for the feature in the first week.
(The promotion expires Wednesday.)
You can expect to see more parlay bets and more promotions built around the feature this football season.
For DraftKings in MI, Same Game Parlays are only currently available on mobile platforms. To access, you need to click on a game, and then toggle the Same Game Parlay button to access what bets are available for the feature.
Barstool Sportsbook also plans to roll out a version of same-game parlays this year.
FanDuel has built strong brand on parlay success
Why are other companies following FanDuel down the parlay road? Well, because it works.
Sportsbooks want players betting parlays because they have a much lower chance of winning than regular bets.
Although there’s no data publicly available yet on how same-game parlays compare with regular parlays, sportsbooks wouldn’t carefully craft the feature if it wasn’t to their benefit.
FanDuel has built most of its promotions around parlays, with parlay insurance as one of the most popular promos. There, bettors can get their money back on a parlay bet of a certain depth if only one of the legs fails.
Look anytime at the FanDuel Sportsbook promo page, and multiple parlay bets will be featured. On Wednesday, FanDuel was pedaling up to $25 back for MLB Parlay Insurance (5-plus legs required) and Multi-Sport Parlay Insurance (again, at least five legs required).
FanDuel is also winning in the business sphere. In Michigan, the sportsbook has had the most online sports betting handle each month since launch in January, according to revenue reports.
Although the Michigan Gaming Control Board does not break up revenue reports by different bet types, you don’t have to look far for evidence of parlay popularity. In June, Illinois sports bettors placed more than $100 million in parlay wagers, trailing only basketball betting in bet types.
Who has the best same-game parlay odds in Michigan?
Well, since three Michigan operators were live with same-game parlay options, why not test it out?
There’s a lot of buzz about Miguel Cabrera’s chase for 500 career home runs. So, about a half-hour before Tuesday’s game at Baltimore, PlayMichigan plugged in a simple parlay for Cabrera to homer and the Tigers to win the game on the moneyline.
The results: DraftKings came up with +500 odds, PointsBet was at +516, and FanDuel gave the most player-friendly odds at +602.
We tried it again Wednesday afternoon for the second game of the series. This time, Cabrera homering at least once and the Tigers winning was +575 at DraftKings, +588 at PointsBet, and +571 at FanDuel.
We’ll keep an eye on these comparisons throughout football season.
DraftKings also adds digital NFT marketplace
In addition to the sports parlay betting feature, DraftKings also unveiled another leg of its own business this week.
DraftKings is now in the NFT (non-fungible token) game, launching a marketplace for the digital collectibles Tuesday with the company Autograph.
The Preseason Access Collection launched Wednesday with a big name: Football GOAT Tom Brady, the former Michigan star. Other upcoming drops should include Wayne Gretzky and others.
DraftKings “dropped” the first of five Brady Premier NFTs, running through 7 p.m. with 10,125 collectibles available from $12 to $100.
Anyone with a DraftKings account can buy and re-sell NFTs on the secondary market. Plus, purchasers of these NFTs will also earn preferential access to future drops, according to DraftKings.
