DraftKings is providing its customers an opportunity to win USD1 billion if they enter the “excellent lineup” in a free-to-play daily fantasy soccer contest for Week 1 of the NFL season.
Sure, you may win a billion at DraftKings without paying to enter the “Billion Greenback Lineup” problem. The competition is free to play and awards a prize pool of USD100,000 to the customers who craft one of the best lineups, even when they aren’t excellent.
However, gamers coming into the competition can be hoping to win the billion USD for hitting the right lineup or the equal of the lottery for daily fantasy sportsbook.
“For the final 5 NFL seasons, DraftKings has led how in innovation and breakthrough concepts creating the sport inside the sport that solely daily fantasy sportsbook can present,” mentioned DraftKings Chief Advertising and marketing Officer Janet Holian in a press launch. “This yr, the Billion Greenback Lineup is the final word alternative for gamers to check their abilities and kick off the brand new NFL season with the potential to win USD1 billion.”
DraftKings is selling the competition with at the very least two commercials:
What does the “excellent lineup” encompass?
DraftKings says it “will calculate the right lineup by figuring out all potential legitimate lineup combos given the NFL Week 1 outcomes underneath the conventional wage cap and roster restrictions. The right lineup would be the highest potential scoring lineup.”
Mainly, which means it’s important to decide the highest scoring participant when it comes to fantasy factors at every of 9 positions (quarterback, two working backs, three huge receivers, tight finish, flex, and a staff protection/particular groups) in a DraftKings lineup.
That has to be finished whereas making a lineup that matches underneath DraftKings’ wage cap construction.
Different particulars for the competition
As a result, the competition is free to play; customers in all 50 states can enter — even these states where the positioning doesn’t serve contests that have real-money entry charges.
To play, it’s important to stay within the US, Germany, the UK, or Canada (however, not in Quebec).
Anybody over the age of 18 might enter the competition in these jurisdictions (besides, you have to be over 19 in Alabama or Nebraska and over 21 in Massachusetts).
The cap on entries is 5 million. One entry per person.
The choice for a fee is USD5 million a yr for 50 years adopted by a lump sum for the remainder or USD300 million as a preliminary lump sum.
The lineup has to be submitted by kickoff at 1 p.m. Jap on September 10.
The competition is presently solely deliberate as a one-time providing for Week 1.
Yow will discover all the main points right here.
How can DraftKings afford to give away a billion dollars?
DraftKings definitely doesn’t have a billion USD sitting around. The competition, like many contests with an enormous amount of cash on the road, is being insured, per the official contest web page:
Smaller DFS websites — most notably the now defunct DraftDay — as soon as provided one million USD if anybody generated the right lineup for any of its contests.
The competition can also be, in all probability, insured at an inexpensive fee as a result of it’s unlikely anybody will win it.
Can somebody truly win a billion dollars?
DraftKings doesn’t present odds for successful competition. Within the official guidelines, it says this:
Odds of Profitable. Mathematical odds of successful the Grand Prize will fluctuate depending upon the information and talent of the Entrant.
And to DraftKings’ credit score it, it does make it sound fairly troublesome to win on the competition web page:
That is essentially the most difficult promotion we’ve ever provided. You aren’t going to win a billion USD by drafting a lineup or perhaps a nice one. To win USD1 billion, you’ll have to draft the “excellent lineup.” Anybody who performs fantasy soccer is aware of how powerful the problem actually is. This promotion may be gained; however, to beat this final, take a look at talent. You’ll be excellent.
However, DraftKings doesn’t put any odds on the likelihood.
What if you happen to attempt to put odds on it?
Whereas being good at DFS definitely could be higher than a randomly generated lineup or one finished with little analysis, the percentages of hitting on it are extraordinarily low, even for a really expert participant. It’s not clear if anybody has ever truly finished this within the historical past of DFS for an NFL contest.
There’s room for debate about how doubtless the right lineup is to realize. It’s someplace on the huge spectrum between “unimaginable” and “a really expert participant may have a likelihood.” It doesn’t matter what you would possibly imagine in regards to the odds of hitting the right lineup they’re doubtless worse than a successful Powerball jackpot, a lottery with lengthy odds, however, no talent concerned.
In response to trade analysts contacted by Authorized Sports activities Report, they put the percentages of placing an ideal lineup collectively at one in two trillion. The identical analysts got here up with these comps at these odds:
It’s 1,000 occasions simpler to make an ideal NCAA bracket than an ideal NFL lineup.
It’s 5,000 occasions extra prone to win a Powerball Jackpot than create an ideal lineup.
Everybody on planet Earth might create roughly 200 lineups, and it’s nonetheless extra doubtless that nobody has an ideal lineup.
May somebody draft the right fantasy lineup and find yourself a billion dollars richer? Certain. However, that’s unlikely to occur.