DraftKings Sued Over ‘Risk-Free’ Bets That Were Anything But

DraftKings Inc. was hit with a class-action lawsuit accusing the sports betting website of misleading new users into believing their first wager would be risk free.

Advertisements promised DraftKings customers that if they lost their “risk-free bet,” instead of having to pay up, they’d be credited with a “free bet.” But customers who won with this credit were paid less than half what they’d have made placing the same wager with cash, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in New York federal court.

“The difference renders the supposed ‘risk-free’ promotion anything but risk free,” according to the complaint.

A representative for DraftKings didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Samantha Guery, who filed the complaint, alleged DraftKings created the promotion to win over new or unsophisticated gamblers most likely to lose money. The promise of a risk-free bet was especially appealing to newcomers who might have a “natural resistance” to gambling, Guery claimed.

“After DraftKings lured users into opening accounts based on the promise of Risk-Free Bets, many new users discovered their money was indeed at risk,” according to the complaint.

DraftKings didn’t tell customers that the risk-free bet would actually become a “far less valuable” “free bet,” according to the complaint, which notes that several state regulators have cracked down on the use of misleading language by sportsbooks.

Guery is seeking unspecified damages on behalf of other DraftKings users who lost their risk-free bets in New York.

The case is Guery v. DraftKings, Inc., 24-cv-02921, US District Court, Southern District of New York.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Rachel Graf in San Francisco at rgraf27@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.net

Peter Blumberg, Steve Stroth

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