DraftKings California Promo Code June 2023

DISCLAIMER: Online sports betting is not live in California as of May 2023. This review is speculative based on the DraftKings Sportsbook app in states where it is available. This page will be updated when we get closer to launch day in California. 

DraftKings California isn’t live yet. But when legal sportsbooks come to California, it will challenge for the most revenue in the state.

There’s a reason DraftKings is seen as an industry leader across the US. It boasts the deepest menu of sports and leagues to bet on and a high-quality app. It will give loyal California sports betting enthusiasts rewarding ongoing promos and consistently competitive odds that keep them coming back.

Below is a DraftKings review for how the sportsbook might look in California. When DraftKings goes live in California, you’ll also want to use our exclusive DraftKings California promo code to access your welcome promo offer.

Is DraftKings Legal in California?

No. Sports betting is not legal in California, so this review is purely speculative and based on the DraftKings Sportsbook platform in states where it’s legal.

DraftKings California Promo Code June 2023

If it launches in the future, our DraftKings California promo code link will get you one of the best California sportsbook bonuses: up to $1,200 in bonus bets, including a $50 bonus bet, a 20% first deposit match up to $1,000, and a bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets offer. Terms and conditions apply.

No-deposit bonuses are rare, so we suggest downloading DraftKings California (if it launches) for no reason other than to take advantage of the $50 bonus bet.

DraftKings Sportsbook Pros and Cons

Pros

✅ You will not find a deeper or more varied menu of sports and leagues to bet on.

✅ The app is high-performing, with few bugs or glitches, making for a near-flawless mobile app experience.

✅ The $50 bonus bet is the best no-deposit welcome bonus on the market right now.

Cons

😡 DraftKings can have a high vig, compared to its competitors.

😡 Other sports betting apps have better rewards programs, such as Caesars Sportsbook California.

DraftKings California: Bonus and Promos (4.5/5)

In states where it’s currently legal, DraftKings offers new users a welcome bonus of up to $1,200 in bonus bets. That includes a $50 bonus bet, a 20% deposit match up to $1,000, and a bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets offer.

A bonus bet is always great, and that deposit match promo has a high maximum value compared with the rest of the online sportsbooks.

How to Use DraftKings in California

If it ever launches in California, here’s how you get your DraftKings Sportsbook welcome promo offer and sign up.

1. Click on our DraftKings California promo code “Claim here” link. If you’re on your computer, you will be directed to the DraftKings Sportsbook website. If you’re on your phone, you will be directed to download the iOS app in the App Store or the Android app in the Google Play Store.
2. Click on Log In | Join at the top of the screen.
3. Click Sign Up on the next screen.
4. Create an account by entering your email and phone number, and create a username and password.
5. Open the DraftKings app when the sportsbook has launched in California.
6. Deposit at least $5 to receive your $50 bonus bet + 20% deposit match up to $1,000.
7. Also place a $5 moneyline bet and get $150 in bonus bets if the wager wins.

How the DraftKings Welcome Promo Works

The $50 bonus bet is simple: Deposit a minimum of $5, and you get a bonus $50 credit. That $50 isn’t withdrawable, but you get to keep all winnings you get from it.

That deposit match is only on the first deposit. And to get access to those matching funds, you have to spend your own money. For every $25 you spend, DraftKings will give you $1 of the site credits you earned with your first deposit. This might tempt bettors to spend a lot of money at first to get the full deposit match bonus. We advise against them, and instead recommend betting at whatever pace you’re comfortable with.

And don’t forget the most important part of the promo: 20%. Only 20% of your first deposit gets matched, so don’t deposit $500 expecting a $500 match. You’d only get a $100 match.

The bet $5, get $150 in bonus bets deal comes in six separate $25 bonus bets. The bet has to win to qualify for the promo.

Despite the terms and conditions, DraftKings Sportsbook will offer one of the best California sports betting bonuses out there.

DraftKings Current Promotions

DraftKings also works hard to retain its bettors wide an enticing selection of ongoing promos. Simply click the “Promos” tab on the top of the screen to find them.

These are some of the ongoing promotions DraftKings was offering in February 2023:

⭐ NBA Early Win — Place a moneyline wager on an NBA team, and if that team is winning by 10 or more points at any time during the game, you’ll win that moneyline bet.

⭐ NBA No Sweat SGP — If your NBA SGP up to $10 loses, DraftKings will give you a 100% refund in a bonus bet.

⭐ Daily Free to Play Pools — These are essentially free pick’em pools that DraftKings offers on a variety of sports and leagues all year.

DraftKings Sportsbook California: Odds vs. the Competition (4.5/5)

DraftKings will offer competitive game lines in California. Its odds tend to be particularly competitive on favorites.

So, bettors who find themselves betting on the favorite should check DraftKings. Even though the app doesn’t always have the best favorite odds, it often does. Bettors will be able to find good underdog odds, too. However, DraftKings will be a must-check sports betting site when bettors gravitate toward a game’s favorite. 

Still, we always encourage bettors to shop at multiple different sportsbooks in order to get the most favorable odds for your bets. You may usually like the odds DraftKings CA has. But if it offers +800 odds on the Los Angeles Lakers winning the NBA Finals and BetMGM California offers +1000 odds, you obviously should wager with BetMGM. In that scenario, BetMGM is offering the best odds on the Lakers.

DraftKings CA: Sports Betting Options (5/5)

DraftKings Sportsbook will have the largest selection of sports and leagues to bet on in California. The core of the app’s sports offerings is professional US sports, like the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB. But college sports are also major revenue drivers for sportsbooks. Bettors can also find lines on soccer, tennis, golf, and similarly popular sports.  

DraftKings will also offer lines on sports like Gaelic hurling and cricket, and even cornhole. These are less popular sports in American markets. But they increase the number of live betting lines available to bettors. The sportsbook giant even offers lines on esports. 

But DraftKings offers lines on many leagues within these sports, too. Soccer has a particularly wide selection of international leagues. Even football and baseball have international options for bettors who want to spread their wings. Care to bet on some Korean baseball? 

What Types of Bets Can I Make at DraftKings Sportsbook?

You’ll find pretty much any type of bet that exists on the DraftKings Sportsbook California app. Here’s a breakdown of some of the most common types of wagers in sports betting:

💰 Moneyline: This one is the most basic. You pick a team to win. If that team wins, you win. If that team loses, you lose. You stand to make more money if you pick an underdog (the team that isn’t favored) to win, and it does. But you can still make small bits of money that will add up over time by correctly picking favorites.

💰 Spread: Just a little more complex. Instead of picking the winner, in a spread bet, you wager based on the margin of victory or defeat. For instance, if you are interested in betting on the Dodgers, and LA is favored by 1.5 runs against the Astros, you would need the Dodgers to win by more than 1.5 runs to cash your wager.

💰 Total: Total bets are simple. They’re all about the final score of the game. Say the predicted total for that Dodgers-Astros game was 7.5 runs. That means, if you bet the Over, you’d want the two teams to combine for 8 or more runs. If you took the Under, you’d want them to score 7 or fewer runs. Total bets are also referred to as Over/Under bets.

💰 Props: Prop bets are some of the most fun wagers to make, because they can be on a wide range of topics. They focus on individual outcomes in a game. The first team to score? The first player to hit a 3-pointer? How many receivers will catch a pass in the first quarter? Will a certain pitcher allow two or more runs? And so on.

💰 Futures: Futures bets are wagers on what will happen at the end of the season, and they’re often made in the preseason. You could bet on the Dodgers to win the World Series or bet on the Rams to win the Super Bowl before the seasons start. Those are examples of team futures. But there are player futures, too — Mookie Betts will win NL MVP, Cooper Kupp will catch 15 or more touchdown passes, etc.

💰 Parlays: A parlay is simply packaging multiple wagers into one bet where each individual bet has to win in order for the whole ticket to win. Your payout is much higher, but you won’t receive any winnings if four bets on your five-bet parlay pan out. It’s an all-or-nothing affair. DraftKings allows bettors to make a parlay with legs from just one game, called a Same Game Parlay, or SGP. DraftKings customers can also combine SGPs into one mega-parlay called a Same Game Parlay Extra, or SGPx.

💰 Teasers: A teaser bet involves “buying” points in exchange for bet volume. Translation: You can get a better line, but you have to make the bet as part of a parlay. For example, the standard teaser buy in football betting is six points, so you could shift the spread in a Rams game from 2.5 points to 8.5 points, but you’d have to make that wager as part of a parlay.

💰 Live betting: Also called in-game wagering, live betting happens when you place bets on a game while it is unfolding. Live betting odds often fluctuate, and you need a quality live stream.

DraftKings SGP vs. SGPx

A Same Game Parlay, or SGP, is a parlay where all the bets are from one game.

However, DraftKings also offers the Same Game Parlay Extra, or SGPx. This is a bet consisting of multiple SGPs. As you can imagine, the odds of winning an SGPx are low, but the potential payouts can be quite high.

DraftKings California: Deposit and Cashout (5/5)

DraftKings Sportsbook has one of the largest selections of deposit and withdrawal options on the market. This gives bettors flexibility that they often don’t realize they need. Some deposit options are routinely blocked by certain banks and credit card companies.

So, the long list of deposit options is important for bettors. The deposit options include:  

💳 Credit and Debit Cards

🏦 Online Banking

💲 PayPal

✔️ VIP Preferred eCheck

💸 Play+ Prepaid Card

💻 Wire Transfer

🎁 DraftKings Gift Card

💵 Cash

Bettors have more deposit options than most sports betting apps. So, bettors seeking flexibility should consider a DraftKings account if it launches in California. DraftKings’ withdrawals are similarly:

🏦 Online Banking

💲 PayPal

✔️ VIP Preferred eCheck

💸 Play+ Prepaid Card

💻 Wire Transfer

💵 Cash Cage 

✔️ Checks

This is an exceptionally long list of withdrawal options compared to what most sportsbooks offer. Most sportsbooks may offer between 3-5 withdrawal options. DraftKings offers seven. So, bettors have great flexibility in how they move money among their accounts.

DraftKings California: Mobile App (5/5)

The DraftKings Sportsbook mobile app is well put-together, easy on the eyes, and, more importantly, easy to navigate. Not all sportsbook apps are able to squeeze everything onto one screen — promos, ads, odds — as well as DraftKings does.

If it launches in California, the DraftKings Sportsbook app will have navigational tabs on the bottom of the screen. There, bettors can find the A-Z sports list, the promotions, and the help section. Each screen offers clear navigational prompts, too. Once bettors have selected a sport to bet on, the leagues are easy to scroll through.

We like the “Trending” section, which allows users to see the most popular current bets on DraftKings throughout the US. Head to the Quick Parlay section and you’ll find “Trending” there.

Overall, this mobile app is easy to use. It’s a sleek app that performs well. It has no lag and bettors don’t have to worry about frequent crashes. It’s also easy for bettors to navigate. 

In states where it’s legal, the DraftKings Sportsbook app has 4.8 stars with 473,980 reviews on the App Store and 4.6 stars with 63,896 reviews on the Google Play Store. It takes up 203.5 MB of space.

A recent three-star App Store review from December 2022 reads, in part: “Decent book but do not expect anything besides sub par/non existent offers/customer service unless you spend LARGE amounts of money.”

DraftKings California: Customer Service (4/5)

DraftKings provides an easily accessible help center with a wide range of FAQs divided into 12 sections: Deposits & Withdrawals, My Account, Promotions & Offers, Dynasty Rewards, Fantasy Sports, Sportsbook, Pools, Casino, Marketplace, Reignmakers, Responsible Gaming, and Contact DraftKings.

These are in-depth and quite helpful. They cover just about every topic you can think of.

Beyond those FAQs, you can also contact support via a request form. When we used the site on desktop, we couldn’t live chat with a human and had a bot direct us to the FAQs, which was less than ideal. Our request form got an email response within five minutes, but it’s nice to have a real live chat feature.

There’s no way to contact DraftKings customer support on the phone, either.

Setting Limits at DraftKings California

DraftKings Sportsbook allows its customers to set limits for themselves. There are four ways to do this:

• Time limits — how much time per day you can use the app
• Deposit limits — these can be daily, weekly, or monthly
• Wagering limits — the maximum amount you can bet
• Self-exclusion — you won’t be able to access the sportsbook app for a certain amount of time

These limits will take effect right after you put them in place. Once you have set a certain limit, you have to wait for it to expire before removing it, extending it, or modifying it in any way. Translation: You can’t change a limit once you’ve set it, for obvious reasons.

DraftKings Sportsbook California: Overall Grade (4.7/5)

There’s a reason DraftKings is so popular in the US. It’s just hard to find any significant flaws with the sportsbook, on its website and app. You’re always going to find competitive odds, and DraftKings Sportsbook’s sprawling menu of sports and leagues to bet on is second to none in the sports betting industry. Plus, you’ll have all the deposit and cashout options you could ever need, and the app is just about flawless.

No matter the state, DraftKings is almost always the most popular or second-most popular sports betting app where it’s legal. If DraftKings Sportsbook ever launches its online platform in California, it will surely be right up at the top of the CA sports betting leaderboard, too.

DraftKings VPN

Can you use VPN to bet with DraftKings Sportsbook?

No.

Technically, you can use a VPN to sign up, create an account, and look at odds for any sportsbook. But that’s about all you can do. DraftKings requires you verify your identity to make bets. Many deposit and withdrawal methods require a billing address, too, which security looks at.

A VPN works by masking your IP address, and that will likely get you blocked by sportsbook security anyway.

Long story short: Sorry, but using a VPN won’t let you place bets with DraftKings Sportsbook in California.

Can You Use DraftKings in California?

No. Not DraftKings Sportsbook at least.

Legal real-money sports betting won’t be coming to California until 2025 at the earliest, after two sports betting ballot measures failed miserably in the 2022 election. So DraftKings California can’t legally exist right now.

However, DraftKings does provide daily fantasy sports legally in California. So residents can use DraftKings in the state, as long as it’s DraftKings DFS.

Is DraftKings Sportsbook Legit?

Absolutely. Here’s why:

• It is based in the US. And that means it’s regulated by oversight bodies whose job it is to protect the customers. Sportsbooks based outside the US don’t face any such oversight.
• It is already in well more than a dozen states. That means that regulatory agencies in many other states have already verified DraftKings’ safety. That doesn’t just happen by accident — it means the online sportsbook checks every box for safety and security. Maryland is the latest state to green light DraftKings.
• It lets you deposit money with Visa or Mastercard. It means a whole heck of a lot that these two titans of the credit card industry trust DraftKings enough to allow their customers to use it.
• It has its own internal security system to prevent hackers or cybercriminals from accessing its users’ information. Again, this is something most offshore betting sites don’t have, and you don’t want to suffer because of that. We’ll get to that more shortly.

Ultimately, DraftKings Sportsbook is the closest you can get to a legitimate online sports betting site. There are other competitors that are similarly legit, but few are as well-known.

Why Choose DraftKings Sportsbook CA Over Offshore Betting Sites?

Offshore betting sites may be attractive if you are impatient to start betting on sports. But there are plenty of reasons why you should reconsider.

• Offshore sports betting sites don’t answer to any regulatory agency. That means that, technically, these sites can do whatever they want with your money and information. This isn’t to say all offshore sites will steal from you. But it’s a scary proposition to think you have no legal recourse if they do.
• Offshore betting sites have nothing to stop them from selling your personal information to cybercriminals. And maybe even worse: These sites often lack strong digital security measures. So even if they try to protect your information from hackers, they might not be able to. That’s not a risk we advise taking.
• You aren’t guaranteed to receive your winnings from offshore betting sites. Again, without anybody regulating them, these illegal sports betting sites do whatever they want. If they don’t want to pay you your winnings, they don’t have to. Now, most offshore sites are trying to build customer bases, and holding back users’ winnings is no way to do that. But still, an illegal offshore betting site is simply not worth your time and money.

Thus, even though it may take a while yet for DraftKings Sportsbook California to launch, it’s still a much better choice to wait for this legitimate option than it is to funnel your money into an unregulated operation.  

Why Can You Trust the DraftKings California App With Your Money?

The mobile app and website are both secured with SSL certification. In short, this is a type of encryption that prevents user information from being easily scooped are harvested by hackers or other cybercriminals. Furthermore, DraftKings uses its own antivirus software and investigative agents to ensure security for the mobile app and the website.

For online transactions (deposits and cashouts), DraftKings only accepts secure and safe money transfers. Again, the same agencies that oversee various casinos in other states will oversee DraftKings Sportsbook California.

The state government, in other words, makes sure that the mobile sportsbook won’t mistreat your money or take it away from you without cause.

If there ever is an issue, you can contact California’s regulatory gambling agencies and start an investigation. This threat alone is enough to guarantee that DraftKings won’t try anything funny.

Does DraftKings Offer Fantasy Sports in Caifornia?

Yes.

DraftKings DFS is a widely popular daily fantasy sports app in California and across the country. Technically, DFS is neither legal or illegal in California, so DFS operators like DraftKings can offer their platforms the exact same way they would if DFS was explicitly legal.

There are no signs California lawmakers want to legislate DFS any time soon, so DraftKings and all California DFS apps will continue doing what they’ve done for the foreseeable future.

Californians can also access DraftKings Marketplace, where they can buy, sell, and collect NFTs.

Will DraftKings Offer a Retail Sportsbook in California?

It certainly could one day, but not until 2025 at the earliest.

That’s because both CA sports betting ballot measures lost in landslides in the November 2022 election, preventing retail and online sportsbooks from launching in California for the next couple years.

Now, we’ll see what type of sports betting initiatives appear on the 2024 ballot. If one, or multiple, involve retail sports betting at Indian casinos, then could DraftKings partner with one of the Indian casinos in California to offer a retail sportsbook? You bet.

DraftKings works with tribes in other states for retail sportsbooks at their casinos. For example: The Boston-based app partnered with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation in Connecticut for a retail sportsbook at Foxwoods Resort Casino.

Also, future retail sports betting initiatives might allow for sportsbooks at sports venues, which would open up the possibility for locations at venues such as SoFi Stadium, Dodgers Stadium, and Crypto.com Arena.

DraftKings currently is partnered with MLB. Three MLB teams (Giants, Dodgers, Padres) are partnered with three Indian casinos (Cache Creek Casino Resort, Yaamava’ Resort & Casino, Sycuan Casino Resort), so those could be potential casino sportsbook locations to keep an eye on.

DraftKings Sportsbook California Fact Sheet

What First-Time Bettors Should Know

If DraftKings California is your first dive into sports betting, here are some tips you need to read:

1. Bonuses can be different based on location and account usage. DraftKings doesn’t necessarily offer the same promos in every state. And a more frequent bettor might not get the same ongoing promos as a bettor who barely uses the app. Promos aren’t a one-size-fits-all deal.
2. Your original wager is lost with bonus bets. Bonus bets are great because they make the introduction to sports betting a little less daunting. However, they are not the same as regular bets. If a regular bet of $100 wins on -200 odds, you’d get $150 back — your original wager plus the $50 winnings. With a bonus bet, you would only get the $50 winnings.
3. Always consider the playthrough requirements. Some bonuses seem too good to be true until you read the terms and conditions and see playthrough requirements. Essentially, a playthrough requirement is how many times you have the bet the amount of your promotional wager to receive your full bonus. DraftKings, for instance, has a 25x playthrough requirement on its deposit match.
4. Double-check odds boosts on parlays. Sometimes, an odds boost promo is actually worse than the odds you’d get if you just manually selected the parlay legs yourself. Yes, it’s true.
5. You can’t use bonus bets on ongoing promotion offers.

DraftKings California FAQs