Daily fantasy sports (DFS) has become increasingly popular over recent years, with the format revolving around punters paying an entry fee in order to compete against others in predicting upcoming events. Points are won based on real-life performances, with markets lasting for a short period of time as a result. Winners will receive a share of the prize pool, while a percentage of entry fees go to the provider itself.
Horse racing was introduced at DraftStars at the beginning of 2024, adding to the list of sports betting markets found on their platform. Aussie Rules, Rugby League, football, basketball, golf and cricket are available to bet on in total, with both pre-match and in-play markets being found. The Australian Football League (AFL), National Rugby League (NRL) and National Basketball Association (NBA) are among the most popular competitions available at DraftStars, with each and every match being covered by the daily fantasy sports operator. Horse racing fans are in with the chance of betting on meetings from domestic tracks including Flemington, Randwick, Rosehill and Ascot, while a selected number if international races are also found.
DraftStars operates differently to traditional bookmakers, with the fantasy sports platform bringing together sports betting, Supercoach and Dreamteam. Customers can battle it out for cash prizes, with players having to first select the contest in which best suits them, with horse races being available on a daily basis. Punters must pick a specific horse for each race meeting, with all customers being paid out at the closing S-TAB prices, which will ultimately determine scores in the process. Those collecting the most amount of points at the end of a meeting will be in line to win big! Players are allowed to change their picks right up until the start of races, with prize pools of up to $20,000 being up for grabs.
Looking at an example, players who bet on a horse featuring in an upcoming race at $20 to win and $5 to place will receive 25 points for their troubles. Players are able to enter up to x50, meaning that those who are particularly confident in a specific runner can put their money where their mouth is, with the potential rewards being excellent. While there is no live streaming available at DraftStars, customers can follow the live leaderboard in order to track their selections, hopefully seeing them rise to the No.1 spot. Live betting is available at DraftStars, however this unsurprisingly does not involve horse racing, given the nature of the sport, with Aussie Rules, basketball and rugby league being more common in this area. Click here to see our SwopStakes ratings for odds.
Punters must stake at least $2 on races in order to enter. However, horse racing fans will be limited to x10 $10 entries per day, as well as x25 $10+ entries over the same period of time. Such limits should cater well for the majority of players, with those looking for something different from a traditional bookmaker certainly being advised to check out DraftStars. A large number of horse racing markets are available on their fantasy sports site, with the large prize pools set to continue to attract new customers.
The Rapidfire feature at DraftStars is also available when it comes to horse racing, which allows players to predict who will score more points for individual player matchups. In horse racing, the winner of races will score 1 point, the runner-up two points and third-place three etc. Then, the horse with the lowest score, or the highest finishing race position, will determine the tier winner.
Elsewhere, the following game types are available to customers at DraftStars, catering well for fans of fantasy sports and adding to the overall DraftStars ratings score:
Guaranteed – This form of game at DraftStars arises when they guarantee the prize pool for a featured event, with payouts being completed in full in the event of there being at least two entries from different players.
Multi Entry – Multi entry markets mean that players have the opportunity to enter a contest more than once, potentially submitting a variety of stakes in the process. Additional entries cost a fee, while they will be scored as such.
Multiplayer – Both double and triple contests are also available at DraftStars, with resulting prize pools among the top 45% and 30% of finishers winning respectively, worth double their entry fee.
Target –Available on selected markets, target betting at DraftStars consists of predicting a specific target score in the game rules. Players who reach their target score will equally share the prize pool.
Drop 1 – Only the top 8 scores of 9-player lineups will count towards a player’s total points score, which while not being available to horse racing fans, may still come in handy when staking elsewhere.
