DRAFTKINGS CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES 2021

Chris Altman Sports Betting Expert

3 minute read

This Sunday will mark the DraftKings Championship Series main sports betting event: the $1.25M Championship Series Millionaire Pool. This lucrative event will be available for entrants that have an existing DraftKings sportsbook account in good standing, at a $25 buy-in.

That entry ticket will get you a seat at the Champions Series table, and if you make it all the way to the end of the survivor pool, you’ll win the $1M grand prize, in addition to a seat at the Tournament of Champions, to be held in January 2022. DraftKings continues to offer this high-stakes tournament for sports betting, casino, and fantasy sports events; all competition takes place online, with DraftKings to announce the potential of in-person events soon.

If you’re not familiar with how the Championship Series contests work, they’re essentially prize pools, a concept familiar to DFS players in which official rules and scoring determine whether or not you make it to the next round.

If you’ve ever filled out a March Madness bracket, the tournament works similarly: you need to have all your picks in by the start of Sunday, October 10th in order to get a shot at the prize. If you do the math, even with 4000 entrants, that $25 buy in is supplemented by an extra $900,000 or so in prize winnings, with the supreme winner taking home a cool $1 million. If DraftKings gets more applicants than they expected, the prize pool will grow with the player pool.

As stated above, eligible users will have until the day of Sunday, October 10th to pay the buy-in and make their picks for that day. (Interestingly, you cannot make picks on the NY Jets vs. BAL Falcons game while participating in this tournament.)

Here’s a breakdown of the pay table for winners of the $1.25M Championship Series Millionaire Pool:

• First place: $1,000,000
• Second place: $50,000
• Third place: $25,000
• Fourth place: $10,000
• 5th - 12th: $5,000
• 13th - 32nd: $500
• 33rd - 152nd: $250
• 153rd - 1002nd: $100

After “minting 100 millionaires” with the Championship Series, a series of events that started in September 2021, the top competitors will face off in a similar survival pool contest that is most likely to be held solely online. The overall contest will culminate in the DraftKings Tournament of Champions in January 2022.

Overall, this season’s DraftKings Championship Series is a great way to get a shot at a huge grand prize (if all your picks are right, of course) for a pretty low buy-in, about the same that you’d spend playing an off-books bracket with your friends and colleagues. If you haven’t already paid the buy in and started making your picks, now is as good a time as any to do so: this event will be the last chance for you to qualify for the overall Tournament of Champions to be held in early 2022.

Users are able to qualify and play in all three series, including Casino, DFS, and sports betting competitions. You’ll need to buy in and qualify for each event, but if you’re the luckiest human being in the world, you can have a chance at winning all three tournaments. As always, terms and conditions apply, and these games are for users 21+ for entertainment only, not investment.

Chris Altman

Chris Altman is a sports betting writer and content expert with almost a decade of experience. He's covered everything, but his current focus is on reviewing sportsbooks and online casinos and keeping tabs on sports betting legislation. Chris has been with VegasInsider since 2019 and has freelanced in the sports betting content industry for years. More from Chris Altman