From First Bet
to Active Bettor.
Exploring how early social participation may influence continued engagement among new sports bettors.
of bettors placed their first bet with a friend.
New bettors may struggle to reach meaningful participation.
Early betting experiences are often social.
Help new bettors access existing social experiences sooner.
The Drop-Off Problem.
DraftKings has publicly identified engagement and retention as drivers of long-term growth. This project explores one behavioral factor that may influence what happens right after the first bet.
New bettors don’t just need to know how to bet.
They need a reason to come back.
What We Learned.
Placed their first bet with a friend.
Received guidance from another person during their first betting experience.
Selected group betting as the feature most likely to increase continued participation.
Source: Original survey of 20 new and casual sports bettors, 2026.
A Pattern Emerged.
Most participants described early experiences that involved guidance, encouragement, or participation from someone else.
The first bet is often a shared experience.
The social support present during the first betting experience may not carry forward into later participation.
What if that social experience didn’t end after the first bet?
Social participation appears most relevant at the very beginning, yet most of the experiences that support it are found later, once users are already navigating alone.
The opportunity is helping new bettors reach meaningful participation sooner.
DraftKings Social already exists.
Feeds, groups, profiles, community picks, and group parlays are already built into the app. The infrastructure for social participation is there.
Rookie Mode.
A FIRST TIME BETTOR ACTIVATION LAYER
An activation layer that helps first time bettors build their first connections inside the social features DraftKings already has.
Not a new community product, but a shorter path to the one that already exists.
First Time Bettor Activation Journey.
A new bettor places a first bet and Rookie Mode turns on.
They are pointed to friends, groups, and communities already in the app.
They take a first social action, like joining a group or a community pick.
Familiar people and groups give them a reason to open the app again.
Rookie Mode in Action.
Five screens.
Rookie Mode.
The Path to Engagement.
Users discover DraftKings Social earlier.
Users take their first social actions.
Users have more opportunities to return and participate.
If Rookie Mode shortens the path to social participation, it may increase early engagement among new bettors.
This project does not claim that social activation guarantees retention. It proposes a testable relationship between earlier participation and continued engagement.
People rarely start betting alone.
DraftKings already has the social infrastructure. The opportunity is to help new bettors experience that value earlier.