The fourth week of the NFL season saw DraftKings continue to hold a huge advantage in the daily fantasy sports space over FanDuel.
The top-line figures at DraftKings and FanDuel
According to a sampling of the publicly viewable NFL contests from Sept. 25-Oct. 1, DraftKings held just about $4 million of entry fees (aka revenue) from the contests.
The sample included guaranteed prize pools and non-guaranteed contests, but not head-to-head contests. (The number does not account for any free entries the site may have given out.)
The site generated more than $32 million in entry fees, aka handle, up about $3 million from the previous week.
The gap between the two operators was even wider than what it was a week before. The No. 2 site in DFS had about $16 million in handle and $2.2 million in revenue. The numbers were relatively flat week over week.
The above figures do not include revenue or handle from other sports. Once again, there were more than eight million entries made across the two sites for NFL contests.
Sunday only
The gap was narrower when including a sample of only contests that started on Sunday:
- DraftKings: $25 million handle, $3 million revenue
- FanDuel $14 million handle, $1.8 million revenue
DraftKings’ numbers on this front increased week over week.
Looking ahead to NFL Week 5
The sites are generally holding steady heading into the fifth week of daily fantasy football looming.
DraftKings’ Millionaire Maker remains at $4.25 million guaranteed. FanDuel, meanwhile, increased the Sunday Million guarantee to $2.2 million (up $200,000).
Despite that increase, DraftKings still outpaces FanDuel by a wide margin on guaranteed contests. As an illustration, guarantees for FanDuel’s top four contests do not even equal the Milly Maker at DraftKings.
Here are the five biggest contests at each:
| DraftKings | FanDuel | |
|---|---|---|
| Contest guarantee (entry fee) | $4.25 million ($20) | $2.2 million ($7) |
| Contest guarantee (entry fee) | $1.6 million ($333) | $600,000 ($33) |
| Contest guarantee (entry fee) | $1.6 million ($3) | $600,000 ($150) |
| Contest guarantee (entry fee) | $800,000 ($5) | $500,000 ($333) |
| Contest guarantee (entry fee) | $700,000 ($1,500) | $400,000 ($1,590) |
Prior weeks for NFL at DraftKings and FanDuel
Editor’s note: FanDuel’s handle numbers were updated to reflect an error in Legal Sports Report’s sample
