Every sports bettor has likely been haunted by one leg of a parlay going awry and spoiling the entire bet. But DraftKings‘ latest parlay revamp will stop some customers’ feeling that phantom limb this football season.
DraftKings’ new Ghost Leg feature, which will run through the first two weeks of the NFL season, allows customers who apply a Ghost Leg Token to a parlay or same-game parlay of at least three legs to receive a cash payout even if one leg loses. The promo, which can be applied to either a pre-match or an in-game parlay or SGP, pays out on the winning legs as if the losing leg never happened.
So, if a user places a $10, five-leg NFL parlay using the token and one leg misses, the customer would receive winnings as if they had placed a $10 bet on a four-leg parlay consisting of the winning legs.
Customers get one Ghost Leg token to use, and a DraftKings spokesperson confirmed to SBC Americas that the maximum qualifying bet value will vary by customer. What doesn’t vary is that each leg must have odds of -500 or longer, and the total parlay odds cannot exceed +20,000. If any leg is voided and the bet is rendered ineligible for the promo as a result, DraftKings will refund the token.
DraftKings said that in the last NFL season, more than 30 million parlays consisting of three or more legs failed because one pick didn’t land. Two million customers missed by one leg at least once.
Like other sportsbooks, DraftKings has iterated upon its parlay product in recent times as the high-margin, low-win type of betting becomes both more popular with customers and more profitable for sportsbooks.
In December 2023, DraftKings rolled out Progressive Parlay, a product that let bettors cash out on parlays of between three and 12 legs even if every leg did not hit. Last year, it acquired in-play betting specialist Simplebet, allowing it to bring parlay-building technology in-house.
Parlays and live betting hold the key
DraftKings CEO Jason Robins has been one of the most vocal on their importance of parlays, noting that parlays and SGPs have proven enticing to players through entertainment value and the potential of big wins and have resulted in higher hold rates.
“We’re seeing new customers coming in and immediately exhibiting behavior of higher parlay mix, but also existing customers increasing their parlay mix in parlay betting,” he added. “And the great thing is that customers love the product, so it’s very sticky. Even if you have to utilize promo to get people to try it, we’re seeing a lot of the customers that initially adopted parlay betting through promo continue to make parlays even when they’re not getting promos. So that’s really a great sign for us.”
In Q2, DraftKings’ parlay handle mix increased 4.3% year-over-year from April 1 to June 30, 2025, while live betting handle jumped 16% year-over-year, more than twice the operator’s overall handle growth. Those two factors helped drive DraftKings’ structural hold up to 10.9%, fueled a sportsbook revenue increase of 45% (on sports betting handle growth of 6%) and pushed sportsbook net revenue margin up to a company-record 8.7%.
Robins noted on the Q2 earnings call last month that the NFL and the NBA are the two best major-league sports in terms of structural hold for sportsbooks because of the heavy SGP and parlay mix. This year will be the first time that DraftKings has full Simplebet parlay and live betting capabilities on board for a full NFL season.
