DraftKings Follows Suit, Imposes Illinois Sports Betting Fee on Users

• DraftKings will charge customers a fee for every sports bet they place in Illinois
• Illinois sports betting users will be required to pay a $0.50 fee on every bet they place in the state
• This comes just several days after FanDuel imposed the same fee on Illinois customers

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Illinois sports betting users will soon have to pay a fee on every bet they place with the two largest sports betting operators in the Prairie State.

Just two days after FanDuel introduced its own per bet fee for Illinois customers, DraftKings announced its own $0.50 charge for every bet placed in the state.

Like FanDuel, DraftKings representatives said this is in direct response to Illinois lawmakers including a new fee of $0.25 or $0.50 in the fiscal year budget for every bet placed with a licensed operator in the state.

DraftKings Hinted at Illinois Changes

Earlier this week, a DraftKings spokesperson told Sports Betting Dime the company anticipated it would take action in the state in response to the new fees, but did not share details on their plans.

The new $0.50 transaction fee for all online sports bets will go into effect on Sept. 1, 2025.

“Illinois has been an important part of our growth, and we’re proud to have contributed meaningfully to the state through tax revenue, job creation, and a sustained investment in responsible gaming tools and resources,” said Jason Robins, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of DraftKings. “We are disappointed that Illinois policymakers have chosen to more than triple our tax rate over the past two years, and we are very concerned about what this will do to the legal, regulated industry. Meanwhile, Illinois continues to fuel the rapidly growing illegal industry, which pays no taxes or fees and provides none of the consumer protections that regulated operators offer.”

If the Illinois per bet fee is repealed, DraftKings will eliminate its own transaction fee.

Direct Response to Illinois Sports Betting Costs

Just last year, Illinois lawmakers imposed a new tiered tax rate system on operators, requiring both FanDuel and DraftKings to pay a 40% tax rate rate. The new per-bet fees will increase the operators’ tax rate to about 57% or 60%, the highest rate in the country.

The new Illinois sports betting fee, included in its proposed fiscal year budget, will impose a $0.25 charge on an operator’s first 20,000,000 online sports bets taken in the state each year. The fee will increase to $0.50 per bet for every single bet taken after the initial 20,000,000 bets.

According to a report from the Chicago Tribune, the new fee is expected to bring in $36 million annually to the state.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) has yet to sign the budget into law, but has said he will do so.

DraftKings Repealed Similar Fee Last Year

The newly imposed transaction fee is similar to one DraftKings tried to implement in several states last year in response to rising costs to do business, but never put into place due to concerns from their customer base.

DraftKings leadership announced it would be institute a new “gaming tax surcharge” on winning bets in New York, Illinois, Vermont, and Pennsylvania as a way to combat rising tax rates and the cost of doing business in certain states during its 2024 Q2 earnings report. The company noted the fees were a tool to ensure an operational effective tax rate of approximately 20% in those states.

DraftKings representatives never announced specific tax surcharge rates, but did reveal it would have varied from state to state. In promotional materials, DraftKings showed the example of a +100 odds ticket for $10 in Illinois winning a total of $19.68, instead of the usual $20.

After customer backlash, DraftKings dropped the gaming tax surcharge from its plans. However, the tax surcharge plan, or an iteration of the plan, could again be imposed on Illinois customers to counterbalance the new fees.