Internal reports from former staff indicate that DraftKings leveraged predictive algorithms to focus promotional betting incentives on users with a high probability of loss. An internal data science project from 2023 that created risk scores to identify problem gamblers was sidelined, according to reporting from the New York Times.

The machine learning system analyzed account balances, play frequency, and the ratio of typical losses to bets to isolate the most profitable customers. These efforts coincide with an annual sales and marketing spend exceeding $1 billion, which includes bonuses used to secure customer deposits.