Ahead of the 2025-26 NFL season, DraftKings Sportsbook announced a “Ghost Leg” promo designed to offer so-called parlay protection.
The gambling operator has marketed the promo as a way for users to boost their chances of winning a parlay bet.
Sports betting often involves irrational thinking and misconceptions about the balance between skill and luck. Some gamblers will make even riskier parlay bets if they have the option to void one of the unsuccessful parlay components.
Let’s see how the promo is an unhelpful and potentially dangerous gimmick for consumers.
How DraftKings Ghost Leg Promo Works
After opting in, bettors receive a Ghost Leg token to apply to an NFL parlay consisting of three or more legs, including same-game parlays.
If exactly one leg loses, DraftKings removes or disappears the “ghosted” leg and pays the ticket as a winner based on the remaining winning legs, rather than grading the whole parlay a loss.
“We all know the feeling of losing a parlay by just one leg,” said a DraftKings.com blog post. On social media, DraftKings said “over 30 million parlays fell short by just one leg” during the last NFL season.
The Ghost Leg offer is available for Weeks 1 and 2 of the 2025-26 NFL season.
The sportsbook said the offer is available in most DraftKings states. Users receive only one token, and no leg can have odds shorter than -500.
Near-Miss Effect Still Present
Parlays can be an especially seductive and addictive form of sports betting because of what is known as the near-miss effect.
Essentially, the brain can become more addicted to gambling when it perceives that a win is close. You can think of it as a partial loss compared to a complete loss.
If you make a parlay bet of five legs and all five legs lose, your brain may not release the same amount of dopamine as it would when a few of the legs were successful and the others failed.
Slot machines are the classic example of the near-miss effect in action.
Near misses can trick your brain into craving more. Chasing losses, one of the main criterion for a gambling disorder diagnosis, is closely associated with the near-miss effect. According to a 2025 survey, more than 50% of online sports bettors have chased losses.
Let’s revisit the DraftKings Ghost Leg promo.
DraftKings allows just one of your parlay legs to lose. If more than one loses, you still are vulnerable to the mental distortions of the near-miss effect.
On its website, DraftKings minimized the potentially deadly trigger of the near-miss effect as “frustration” experienced by its users.
“We all know the feeling of losing a parlay by just one leg. To kick off the NFL regular season, DraftKings is helping bettors avoid that frustration with the Ghost Leg promotion happening in Weeks 1 and 2.”
To complicate the situation, DraftKings requires users to apply the one-time token to a parlay before the bet is placed. This could create an illusion of strategic choice when applying the promo offer to a bet.
Parlays King for DraftKings
The Ghost Leg promo can be viewed as part of a growing parlay-centered business model.
Parlays, which can be compared to lottery-ticket-style sports betting, are the revenue and profit engines of modern betting apps like DraftKings.
Sportsbooks hold a greater percentage of parlay handle in the form of revenue than they do for non-parlay bets such as moneylines and spreads.
In an earnings report released in August 2025, DraftKings reported that a significant increase in its “parlay handle mix” was the reason for its margin growing year-over-year.
FanDuel Sportsbook, DraftKings’ main rival, reported similar parlay results in its earnings report from the second quarter of 2025.
In 2023, FanDuel said parlays represented 70% of all NFL and NBA bets.
DraftKings Ghost Leg Promo Reception
On the social media platform X, the Ghost Leg promo reception was a mixed bag.
Some X users expressed satisfaction with the promo, while others criticized.
Brian Comeaux, a Louisiana attorney, said the promo was designed to make users “lose more” at a “criminally predatory sportsbook.”
Some of the most glowing comments praising the promo came from Barstool Sports influencers. Barstool has a partnership with DraftKings.
One X user noted that the photo DraftKings used contained a small plastic bag. “Why did they make this look like a bag you get drugs in?” the observer asked.
Because “this is dope in its purest form – looks like a deal, but they’re gonna f–ck you worse,” another X user responded.
As of Sept. 1, LeBron James, who promotes DraftKings’ NFL gambling product, has not endorsed the Ghost Leg promo. It’s unclear if the NBA star will help the sportsbook advertise the parlay offer.
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