The New York Times published a major investigation this week into how DraftKings deploys artificial intelligence to determine which customers receive betting promotions.
The investigation found that the same data powering those promotional decisions could potentially be used to identify gamblers at risk of developing serious problems.
Reporters based their findings on interviews with more than 40 former DraftKings employees, as well as internal research, presentations, Slack messages, and betting records.
At the centre of the investigation is a machine-learning model that DraftKings developed in 2023 to analyse customer behaviour at scale.
The system examined dozens of individual data points to build a detailed picture of each customer’s gambling habits and financial patterns.
Those data points included how frequently customers placed bets, what their account balances looked like, and how much they typically lost over time.
The model used that information to predict which players were most likely to respond to promotional offers by gambling more and ultimately losing larger sums of money.
Former employees told the Times that DraftKings did not stop there, but continued developing further methods to target both sports betting and casino customers after the initial model was built.
Those targeting efforts also extended to users who appeared likely to leave the platform entirely, according to the former employees who spoke to the newspaper.
The investigation raises significant questions about the relationship between personalised promotional strategies and responsible gambling obligations in the United States sports betting market.
DraftKings operates as one of the largest online sportsbook and casino operators in the country, giving the scale of these practices considerable weight in the broader industry conversation.
The findings arrive at a time when regulators and public health advocates are paying closer attention to how operators use data-driven tools to influence player behaviour and spending.
