Is the Free-to-Play QuickDraft App a Legal Alternative to DFS?

A new free-to-play mobile phone app called QuickDraft is being hailed as a legal alternative to DFS sites like DraftKings and FanDuel.

In US gambling news, Americans may still be able to get their DFS fix, even as the industry faces ongoing scandals and legal troubles. The legal alternative to DFS is a free-to-play phone app dubbed QuickDraft. QuickDraft operates just like any other DFS site, but maintains the element of chance and does away with the element of risk by not charging player entry fees.

By removing entry fees from their business module, QuickDraft will not make money off of its players like DraftKings and FanDuel do. Instead, it will generate its revenue from advertising.

Says Canadian attorney Michael Lepting about whether or not QuickDraft is a legal alternative to DFS: “As soon as you have risk consideration and prize, you are into a situation where there is gambling. If you offer a free site and people play for points and whoever has the most points gets a prize or cash, that is okay.”

You won’t become a millionaire off the legal alternative to DFS

On QuickDraft, players compete for prize pools worth between $100 and $1,000. By offering low cash prizes, QuickDraft distances itself from DraftKings and FanDuel, who’ve gotten into hot water for advertisements with slogans like: “It’s the simplest way of winning life-changing piles of cash.”

These statements are controversial as not only are they reminiscent of internet betting advertisements, but they’re also false, for data shows that the vast majority of DFS players lose money on DraftKings and FanDuel, rather than win it.

Says QuickDraft’s chief operating officer, Benjie Levy: “We don’t do millionaire makers.”