DraftKings Now Hosting Peer-To-Peer Poker, In A Limited Fashion

DraftKings, a top-two U.S. online sportsbook and online casino operator, is now an online poker operator as well, as first reported by Nick Jones for Pokerfuse on Wednesday morning.

Available only in Michigan as of now, DraftKings has launched “Electric Poker,” a peer-to-peer online poker game that can be found within DK’s online casino on either desktop or mobile.

Michigan’s other online poker sites — PokerStars, WSOP.com, and BetMGM Poker — are all separate poker-only apps that offer a variety of tournaments and cash games. DraftKings is dipping its toe in the iPoker waters with a singular game option that is technically no-limit Texas hold’em but combines it with casino gaming elements.

Electric Poker is, essentially, DraftKings’ version of what PokerStars calls “Spin & Gos” and what WSOP calls “Blast Poker.” These are three-handed winner-take-all tournaments, with prize amounts determined by chance and extremely aggressive blind structures that increase the element of luck.

It is, all things considered, not out of place in an iCasino app. It just differs from every other offering within DraftKings Casino in that customers are competing against each other, not against the house.

Prices and prizes

The Electric Poker games are offered at four price points: $1, $5, $10, and $25. (These are the exact same buy-ins for Spin & Go games on PokerStars in regulated states.)

The prize pool is then determined at random. According to a chart shared on the Electric Poker information page, it will be 2x the buy-in 47.78% of the time, 3x the buy-in just under 36% of the time, 4x the buy-in about 11% of the time, 5x 4.6% of the time, 10x 0.5% of the time, and, extremely rarely, 100x, 1000x, or 10,000x.

So, for example, once every million games at the $25 price point, the prize pool will be $250,000.

The rake works out to 7% for DraftKings over the long haul.

At 4x and below, the winner gets the whole prize pool. At 5x and 10x, both first and second place get a cut. And everyone wins something at 100x, 1000x, and 10,000x.

The blind structure is extremely fast, with just two-minute levels and, in a twist that WSOP.com’s Blast games also feature, an automatic all-in scenario if games aren’t resolved quickly. This is known as “Electric Mode,” and when it arrives, every remaining player is all-in pre-flop every hand until someone has all the chips.

When Electric Mode begins depends on what multiplier was spun. For 2x-5x games, after three levels (six minutes), Electric Mode begins. For 10x games, it’s four levels (eight minutes), for 100x it’s five levels (10 minutes), and for 1000x or 10,000x games, players have six levels (12 minutes) before there are no more decisions to be made.

There is a certain amount of skill and strategy to employed in this form of poker, but it’s much harder for skill to prevail than in a standard sit & go with a slower blind structure.

More states to follow?

Though this version of DraftKings online poker is only available in Michigan currently, DraftKings Casino is regulated in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and West Virginia — so it’s reasonable to expect Electric Poker may come to those states soon.

There appears to be no regulatory issues with providing a peer-to-peer poker game in a casino app, as long as online poker is also legal in that state. And, not that this necessarily matters, but Electric Poker is arguably as close to playing slots as it is to playing traditional poker.

One highly unimportant detail in the grand scheme of things: Will the rake from Electric Poker be reported in Michigan as iCasino revenue or as iPoker revenue?

The details are slow to emerge — DraftKings did not provide Casino Reports with a statement, but rather directed us toward the FAQs and the help page.

But whatever the exact details, DraftKings may be introducing an approach to online poker that shifts the paradigm and it makes it possible for virtual Texas hold’em to reach a far wider audience.