DraftKings Leads NFL Betting Market With Best-In-Class Uptime

More Betting Availability Than the Competition

Throughout the regular season, DraftKings kept its markets open for over 89% of gameplay. This was 5% higher than the closest competitor. Once the NFL Playoffs began, its uptime increased to 94.2%, a 15% advantage over ESPN Bet and Hard Rock.

The average uptime across the nine largest U.S. sportsbooks was 81%, highlighting DraftKings’ lead. Meanwhile, ESPN Bet struggled, maintaining just 75% uptime. As a result, users faced frequent market suspensions, limiting their ability to place bets.

Sabin Brooks, Chief Revenue Officer at Bettormetrics, explained why market availability is essential.

“The NFL season is the crown jewel in US Sports, and the highly competitive offerings across the board include player props, micro bets, and large scale volumes across handicap markets. With plenty of investment in its pricing capabilities, it perhaps isn’t a surprise to see DraftKings as the clear leader in maximizing its potential by having the least market suspensions. Of course, there are other mechanics, such as bet acceptance time, which constitute each operators’ overall trading strategy. Nonetheless, our research has shown uptime remains one of the largest points of difference between the US’ major betting platforms.”

Stronger Performance During the Playoffs and Super Bowl

As the postseason progressed, overall uptime improved. The industry-wide average climbed to 85%, with DraftKings and Caesars both surpassing 90% uptime in the first two weeks.

Robert Urwin, CEO and co-founder of Bettormetrics, pointed out how uptime could shape future strategies. “Over the last three months of the NFL season, we’ve seen some notable market leaders and trends emerge. Although ESPN Bet is still the tied lowest in terms of uptime, it has also steadily increased this over the period by more than 10%, showing that its offering is getting up to speed,” said Urwin.

“Somewhat surprisingly, FanDuel, part of the duopoly with DraftKings, lags behind its rival in uptime by an average of more than six per cent, potentially leaving a decent chunk of revenue on the table due to prolonged suspensions and slow-to-reopen markets. As we can see from the data, it is much closer to the chasing pack of BetMGM, bet365 and Fanatics than its direct competitor, so we may see uptime become an area to improve come next season,” added CEO and co-founder of Bettometrics.

DraftKings also led the way during the Super Bowl, keeping its markets open for 97.6% of the game. In contrast, ESPN Bet moved up from last place, while Fanatics posted the lowest Super Bowl uptime at 82.7%.