DraftKings’ UK Promo Page Still Live Two Years On
A promotional web page carrying a .co.uk address and inviting visitors to check “daily sports and casino promotions” was still loading for British users this week — nearly two years after the company behind it gave up its UK Gambling Commission licences. The discrepancy, flagged in reporting published on 7 September 2026, does not prove any rule has been broken, but it highlights how easily an old web presence can outlive an operator’s right to serve UK customers.
What’s actually changed
Nothing has formally changed with DraftKings’ UK status: the company left the British market for good back in October 2024. At the time,
users of the DraftKings app received emails notifying them the product was being pulled from the market effective immediately, with the operator saying the decision was made as part of its ongoing efforts to optimise its business while it remained committed to a smooth transition for customers
. The Gambling Commission’s public register confirms the paper trail:
DraftKings’ remote Gambling Software and Pool Betting licences are marked “Surrendered,” with an October 7, 2024 end date, and the regulator also marks draftkings.co.uk, draftkings.com and draftkings.uk as inactive in Britain
.
Despite that, the promo page in question was still functioning.
It invites visitors to check daily sports and casino promotions, says no promo code is needed, yet its footer uses U.S. problem-gambling numbers and frames eligibility through U.S. states, Ontario and Alberta, giving no active British licence number
. That matters because
the Gambling Commission says a betting website or app serving British accounts must disclose its licensed status
.
Crucially, the reporting is careful not to overstate the finding.
The page’s continued existence does not itself establish a violation; it may be an old route into DraftKings’ wider web estate, with the register supplying the decisive fact that the listed domains are inactive
. DraftKings’ own disclosures back that up:
an Aug. 31 release said Sportsbook operates in 30 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, with Alberta and Ontario completing the disclosed footprint — Britain was absent
.
Daily fantasy sports was described as available in 44 states, Washington, D.C., and certain Canadian provinces
, again with no UK mention.
What it means for you
If you’re a UK player and you stumble across an old DraftKings web page, the practical advice is simple: treat it as inactive. You will not find a live British operating licence attached to it, and it should not be treated as a legitimate route to open or fund an account. Anyone checking whether a gambling site is genuinely licensed here can search the Gambling Commission’s public register directly rather than relying on what a website’s footer claims. This case is a useful reminder that a slick-looking promo page with familiar branding isn’t proof of current UK authorisation — the register is the only reliable source.
For anyone with old DraftKings account details or unclaimed funds from before the 2024 exit, the safest approach remains going through the operator’s official customer support channels rather than any page found via search, particularly given the footer content on this one points to American, not British, support resources.
The bigger picture
The episode sits alongside a broader pattern this year of British regulators and campaigners scrutinising how easily unlicensed or lapsed gambling brands can still appear in front of UK audiences online, whether through stale marketing pages, hijacked domains or offshore operators. It also underlines a wider truth about UK licensing: surrendering a licence is a formal, tracked process on a public register, but scrubbing every trace of an old web presence is a separate — and apparently imperfect — job.
A genuine British revenue case for any operator needs an active UK Gambling Commission licence, an active registered domain and a named launch
, none of which currently apply to DraftKings in Britain.
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