The DraftKings Pick6 game is a combination of daily fantasy sports and player prop betting. 

Customers participate in peer-to-peer competitions by selecting over or under a statistical line for individual players. These contests are somewhat similar to those at Underdog Fantasy and PrizePicks, but with a clear distinction that you are not playing against the house.

DraftKings is offering a welcome promotion for new Pick6 customers in the form of a 25% deposit match, along with individual promotions on a weekly basis. To get started, download the Pick6 app and create a DraftKings account. If you already have an account for DFS or DraftKings Sportsbook, your funds will be available in the Pick6 app. 

What is DraftKings Pick6? 

Pick6, which DraftKings launched in December 2023, is a peer-to-peer skill-based contest that requires you to build a lineup with two to six over/under selections that you cannot edit once you enter a contest. 

Entries must include players from multiple teams, so a lineup consisting entirely of Kansas City Chiefs players would not qualify. You can only select an individual player once, so you can’t take the under on multiple props involving the same player. 

Pick6 basics

DraftKings will automatically enter your lineups into available contests with hundreds of other users, and the highest percentage of correct picks will win prizes once the games are over. Pick6 is available for several professional and college team sports, as well as the UFC, PGA Tour, and NASCAR

Once you create your lineup, the app offers a standard $10 entry fee, which will enter you into 10 contests at $1 each. Customers have the option to wager up to $150 for the maximum amount of distribution. Estimated prizes will appear below the entry fee to indicate what you might receive if you finish near the top of the leaderboard in contests. 

How is Pick6 different from DFS?

In DFS contests, customers select which competition they want to enter. Pick6 removes that choice. DraftKings will automatically enter your “pick sets” into available $1 contests based on three criteria: 1) Contests where you have no entries. 2) Contests where you have entries from other pick sets. 3) Contests where you already have entries from this pick set but fewer than the 150-entry maximum. 

The process of creating a pick set also differs from creating a DFS lineup, which uses a salary cap and assigns each player a price. You can select any of the props available for a pick set. The only requirements are to select players from at least two teams, and you cannot select the same player twice

There is no “late swap” feature in Pick6 contests. In DFS, it’s possible to remove a player and add another player up to game time, but pick sets are final.

Why try DraftKings Pick6? 

For those who aren’t willing to invest the amount of time and research it might take to win DFS contests in certain sports, Pick6 is a quicker alternative. 

Think about the difference between best ball fantasy football — where management effectively ends after the draft — and managed leagues — where roster moves and weekly lineup decisions have a huge impact on success. With Pick6, you simply select “more” or “less” on two to six props and watch the games to see if your picks come through. 

The cost to enter a Pick Set into multiple contests isn’t very big, with the standard entry sitting at $10 for 10 contests. Compared to the investment that picking against the spread often involves, for instance, $10 could be more appealing to casual players. 

Pick6 contests compared to parlays, DFS

Why shouldn’t you just choose six player props and put them in a parlay for a potentially huge payout? The odds of hitting all six picks are always long, and you would receive nothing if you only get five of six correct. But the guaranteed contests in Pick6 offer payouts for those who get close to perfection with one or two incorrect picks. 

Since it’s peer-to-peer and not a bet against a sportsbook, there is no “vig” to account for in figuring your profit potential. And unlike in DFS contests, where the payouts are top-heavy, Pick6 payouts are more egalitarian. 

Additionally, DraftKings is offering various promotions for new and existing Pick6 users to generate more action. With several professional sports in season, promos offering Pick6 credits are available nearly every night. 

How do I play Pick6 at DraftKings? 

First, check to see if Pick6 is available in your state. With the addition of Connecticut in July, it is now available in these states:

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, plus Washington, DC. 

Pick6 welcome promo

When you download the Pick6 app, you can opt in to the current welcome promotion, which offers a 25% deposit match up to $25 if you deposit $100 or more. DraftKings will immediately add the extra Pick6 credits to your account. 

If you already have a DraftKings DFS or DraftKings Sportsbook account, your funds will transfer, and you will also be eligible for the additional Pick6 credits via the bonus match. These credits are non-withdrawable, and you must use them for Pick6 contests. You won’t be able to use them for DFS or online sportsbook wagers.

You’ll need to play the credits through 1x before you can withdraw any winnings, and entry fees will not be part of those winnings. 

How to start playing

Once you’ve downloaded the app and set up an account, you can make two to six selections from among the player props in any of the available sports. Select “more” or “less” for at least two players from at least two teams to build an eligible lineup. 

After selecting your props, click “review picks” to see the final tally, then choose an entry fee between $1 and $150, which DraftKings will distribute to enter you into available contests. You can follow along in the “My Picks” section to see how your players are performing and to see where your pick set sits in the overall standings. 

When the games involving your players end, you will receive an email or notification to your account if you finished in the prize pool based on the percentage of your correct picks. 

DraftKings Pick6 rules 

The overall scoring is relatively simple. DraftKings will mark picks as correct or incorrect based on official statistics from the respective sport. Your entry, or “pick set,” then receives a score based on the percentage of correct picks

DraftKings will enter your pick sets into contests with the same number of picks, so if you choose to pick two props instead of six, you’ll be vying with other entries with just two picks. That will likely lead to lower payouts for a large number of entries that go two-for-two, whereas a contest with six picks would likely pay out those entries that go five-for-six and offer a big payout for those few who hit all six picks. 

All prize pools are guaranteed regardless of whether the contests fill. The estimated prizes that will appear when you sign up for contests indicate the “average win rate” in Pick6 contests, per DraftKings. 

For example, if there is a $10,000 prize pool and 80 entries go six-for-six, those 80 entries could split $8,000 into separate $100 payouts. If 120 entries went five-for-six, they could split the remaining $2,000 in prizes for a payout of $16.67 on their $1 entry payment. 

If your player doesn’t play or a game is canceled

A couple of technical notes for scoring: Players who receive a DNP will count as a loss whether your entry picked them for “more” or “less.” Stats count for injured players who start the game and meet the minimum requirements (just one snap in NFL games) for the specific sport. 

Suspended games are marked as final, so a pick of “less” might be successful if the game in question is postponed to the following day, while a pick of “more” would also be successful as long as the player already topped that stat. Canceled games also lead to a loss regardless of whether the entries for players involved are “more” or “less” entries.

How to view results and withdraw Pick6 winnings 

Live results are available in the Pick6 app by tapping “My Picks” at the bottom of the screen. The app will also indicate how much you might win if your pick set finishes in the top portion of contests. 

Once each game in the pick set has gone final and DraftKings has confirmed the official scoring from the respective leagues involved, you will receive an email or other notification if you have won. DraftKings will typically process winnings by the end of the night after a set of games. 

Withdrawals are available via several methods and typically take one to two days to process. 

DraftKings Pick6 strategy   

While each pick requires a certain level of individual research and intuition, many picks can be correlated. In NFL contests, selecting under for a running back’s rushing yards and over for that same team’s quarterback on passing attempts or passing yards can make sense based on the assumption that the team will struggle to run the ball. 

There are negative and positive correlations to consider in NFL games based on game flow. The same is true in NBA or WNBA games, where lower game totals indicate that points might be hard to come by, and higher game totals indicate the potential for more of a shootout environment. 

Because players who are scratched late and don’t participate in the game count as losses, it’s important to make sure you’re selecting healthy and rested athletes. Players with a chance of injury during a game after playing the minimum necessary amount of time are good options to target with a “less” pick. 

Risk versus reward

As in larger DFS contests, there is the potential reward from the risk of backing a player whom few other entrants will be willing to touch. Taking the over on a player who is questionable heading into a game — or taking the under on a player who is coming off a huge performance — might be a good way to aim for a larger payout by potentially becoming part of a smaller pool of perfect (or near-perfect) picks. 

It’s also important to consider the schedule when choosing how many picks you want to enter in a pick set. For instance, a Thursday Night Football game stands alone, and it can be very difficult to get four or five picks correct in one game. But a full Sunday of NFL games tends to offer many more options to find five or six confident picks. 

Similar to sports betting, most of the strategy comes down to research and intuition. Consider all the team and individual factors leading into the matchup, and try to forecast the performance of players in your pick set.