A prominent daily fantasy sports operator is giving NFL Draft fans a new and unique way to experience this year’s highly popular event.
Key takeaways
- The Draft is a free-to-play game that incorporates traditional draft predictions and viral moments.
- PrizePicks believes it's the first operator to offer this kind of draft product.
- Participants are playing for a share of $500K in free lineups.
Heading into Thursday night’s first round, PrizePicks launched a free-to-play contest Tuesday that lets customers go beyond traditional predictions and have fun with a variety of viral moment choices. The Draft game offers 16 predictions including everything from running back Ashton Jeanty’s draft position to how many times NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell gets booed on stage.
“We’re always looking to create games that make being a fan more fun,” Brian Huss, Vice President of Product, told Covers Wednesday. “(The Draft) has become a real big part of following the NFL and the offseason. So we started thinking about what we can do here that helps kind of extend that and makes it fun and really easy for people to get into.”
Game participants choose their favorite three predictions from the list, and if they get all three correct, they win a share of a $500,000 prize pool in the form of free lineups from PrizePicks. New customers don’t have to make a deposit to play. After creating an account and getting verified, they’re taken directly to the contest’s entry point and can make their predictions.
“It’s a great way for fans to have a ton of fun with The Draft game as well as get more value playing our fantasy games as well,” said Huss, who oversees the company’s game experiences.
YOU'RE ON THE CLOCK ⏳🏈
— PrizePicks (@PrizePicks) April 22, 2025
The free-to-play Draft board is live. Go 3-for-3 on your free Draft Lineup and win a share of $500K in Free Lineups 🔥 pic.twitter.com/G63FOdpz52
Where it started
PrizePicks, which offers DFS games across 45 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and Canada (Ontario excluded), began working on the offering three months ago. Huss said he thought about the year quarterback Aaron Rodgers sat in the green room undrafted and all the camera shots of him waiting to hear his name called.
“I think that sort of changed the way the Draft was broadcast,” Huss said. “It made it more of that fan-focused, trying to understand where all of those moments are coming from, made stars out of those analysts, and became a lot more than just the procedural part of putting college players on their new teams.”
That led Huss and his team to come up with viral moments that are shared and experienced both in real time and on social media. The tradition of Goodell getting booed by fans attending the Draft fits right into their line of thinking.
“I think the commissioner has become such a personality and has become one of the faces of the league, but almost the archetype of the corporate suit that fans are going to react against,” Huss said. “He’s the one that has to announce if a team makes a pick the fans don’t like, he’s going to hear about it.”
Other viral moments
With the NFL Draft not an on-the-field results and stats event like many of the fantasy games PrizePicks typically offers, the contest’s creators thought outside the box. Prediction options include 1.5 attendees left undrafted, 3.5 players drafted in the first round wearing glasses, and 3.5 crying after hearing their name called Thursday.
ESPN insider Adam Schefter is incorporated into the game. Participants can also predict how many SEC and Big Ten players will go in the first Draft, how many times ESPN Draft analyst Mel Kiper says “upside,” and the number of guest announcers who make team selections in the first round.
“This will show us which predictions fans really want to take, which side do they go into?” Huss said. “We had other ideas, but we had to cut to make the game simpler.”
The contest closes at 8 p.m. Thursday when the broadcast begins live from Green Bay, Wisconsin. PrizePicks participants can see many of their selections updated in real time on the app while other predictions, like the amount of boos Goodell receives, require more validation before payouts begin.
One of a kind
PrizePicks believes this is the first to create a game built around cultural predictions for a draft-related product.
“It’s a totally new thing for us, and I think it’s totally new for the industry,” said Elisa Richardson, PrizePicks Vice President of Strategic Communications.
And the DFS operator isn’t done there. PrizePicks is excited to see what data comes from this week’s big NFL event and how it can use that moving forward, hoping it’s launching a new industry trend.
The company is already planning more draft products for other sports. The Draft game is also a starting point to get customers ready for the upcoming NFL season.
There are already pro football predictions available on PrizePicks' app, and Huss says there will be more new features and fantasy and free-to-play options launching during the second and third quarters this year.
“We really want to do more and more experiments in the future to make this game even better,” Huss said.
