DraftKings’ California marketing blitz sparks new lawsuit

• DraftKings has launched state-specific ad campaigns across California, Texas, Georgia and Florida within days of each other.
• The push targets the largest US states where DraftKings cannot legally offer its sportsbook, ahead of the NFL season opener.
• The campaign lands alongside a new California class action alleging Predictions functions as unlicensed sports betting.

DraftKings is pouring marketing dollars into California days before NFL kickoff, promoting a product the state never legalised.

New state-specific adverts for DraftKings Predictions have gone live in recent days across California, Texas, Georgia and Florida, prediction market research firm Aldrin Research first flagged, a rollout that follows NBC San Diego’s report on the platform’s California presence.

Florida is the only one of the four where sports betting is actually legal, under its compact with the Seminole Tribe and Hard Rock Bet.

Marketing blitz lands

The ads carry sportsbook-style welcome offers, promising new users up to $200 in non-withdrawable Predictions Dollars after a $5 qualifying trade, and fine print explicitly naming DraftKings Predictions as a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant.

The timing is key: with the NFL season opening in less than two weeks on September 9, DraftKings is racing to build awareness in states where its flagship sportsbook product cannot legally operate.

Chief executive Jason Robins addressed the strategy directly earlier in August, framing the surge as an education campaign rather than a fresh market entry. Robins told Bloomberg Technology:

“I do believe there’s an education period that needs to occur for people to understand that, actually, if you are in California or Texas, you can use DraftKings now.”

Robins added that the approach mirrors tactics used during this year’s World Cup and expects it to gain more traction once football season begins. DraftKings has previously flagged prediction markets as central to its growth story, with analysts at Citizens valuing the business at up to $14bn by 2030.

A ban with a long history

California’s opposition to sports betting runs deep. Voters rejected two competing ballot measures in November 2022 by wide margins: Proposition 26, which would have allowed retail tribal sports betting, lost roughly 70-30, while Proposition 27, covering online and mobile wagering outside tribal lands, lost by an even wider 82-18 split.

No operator or tribal coalition has put a fresh measure before voters since, and tribes have recommitted to a 2028 ballot push rather than 2026.

That gap is exactly what makes California so valuable to DraftKings. With close to 40 million residents and one of the world’s largest economies, the state represents the single biggest untapped sports betting market in the country, one DraftKings can now reach commercially through Predictions without waiting on a ballot outcome that may not arrive for years.

Super App widens the net

DraftKings first secured the federal approvals needed for Predictions in December 2025, and California was among the first states where sports event contracts went live.

Annualised consumer trading volume on the platform reached $1.3bn in May, and total annualised volume, which also includes market-maker activity, has since climbed to roughly $11bn by July, putting DraftKings in direct competition with rivals Kalshi and Polymarket, both of which also operate in California.

That reach expanded further in March, when DraftKings unveiled a Super App, branded DraftKings Sports & Casino, folding sportsbook, casino, lottery and Predictions into a single account and wallet, with access tailored to each user’s jurisdiction. The consolidation gave DraftKings a sports product reaching nearly every US state, turning its roughly 11 million existing customers into potential Predictions users without requiring a separate download.

DraftKings also recently unified its rewards structure around a single loyalty currency spanning the same set of products.

Tribes sound alarm

The tactic has drawn criticism from California’s tribal gaming sector. James Siva, chairman of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association, has pointed to the state’s sheer size as the draw for operators. Siva said:

“And so, because of that, all of the gaming operators are looking at California as an essential piece of what’s going to make them viable as they move forward.”

Siva has also warned that prediction markets could divert business from tribal communities that rely on casino revenue for jobs and funding.

Lawsuit adds pressure

The marketing surge lands alongside fresh legal trouble. A class-action lawsuit filed earlier this month on August 13 in the US District Court for the Central District of California alleges DraftKings has sought to “evade and circumvent state laws” barring its sportsbook operations, brought on behalf of plaintiff Ricardo Andrio and other Californians who traded on Predictions.

The complaint cites the state’s Unfair Competition Law and False Advertising Law, seeking an injunction plus recovery of user losses, with aggregate claims that could exceed $5m.

The company has faced similar claims before: a separate class action targeting its daily fantasy sports business saw a federal judge dismiss the damages claims in July, though the case survives on a narrower injunctive-relief theory that could still force DraftKings to stop offering paid DFS contests in the state.

The Andrio case will test how far operators can push event contracts into states that have explicitly rejected sports betting at the ballot box, just as DraftKings’ advertising machine kicks into gear for football season.