Best DFS Apps 2026: Daily Fantasy Sports Platforms and Promos

Daily fantasy sports (DFS) have seen a dramatic rise in popularity in recent years, and there are a ton of different DFS apps out there. Here, we'll dive into the best DFS apps, how they work and also the promo codes they are offering to new users who sign up.

The best DFS app for you depends on what you're looking for. Do you prefer the classic, salary-style, team-building DFS contests? Or are you looking mainly for pick 'em style games? Some platforms have a wide variety of contests, while others have a very specific game style. We'll cover what all of the best DFS platforms offer to help you find which app is the best one for you.

The best DFS apps available have different offers and promo codes available for new users who sign up. Here's a closer look at what the best DFS apps are offering as of January 2026.

The Underdog welcome bonus lets new users earn $75 in promo credits after playing $5. 

Underdog offers a wide variety of games for its users, including Best Ball, Battle Royale, Pick Em and Champions. In Best Ball, you draft a team and only your top scorers are designated as "starters," so you don't need to sweat making an ideal lineup or whether a bench player will outscore a starter. These are conducted via "snake draft," and the prize pool is issued to the highest scorers based on the league's rules. 

Battle Royale is a tournament-style contest, where you're not just going against the other teams you drafted with, but your entry is entered into a larger pool of teams. That means you may have teams that have some of the same players, and your score is matched up against every team in the pool rather than just those that you drafted with.  

Underdog also has Pick 'Em contests called "Rivals," which are head-to-head competitions between two players based on a stat category like points or yards. For example, it may be picking between LeBron James and Kevin Durant points scored. There may be an adjustment, such as James +2.5, which means for a James pick to win, he would need to score more than, equal two, or one or two points less than Durant. If Durant scores more than three points more than James, users who backed Durant over James would win. There are also Champions contests, which is where players create a roster of 2-8 athletes from at least two different teams. For each athlete on your roster, you predict whether they will go higher or lower than a benchmark stat. For instance, you may be deciding whether or not Christian McCaffrey eclipses 75.5 total rushing yards as one of your picks. Once you submit your roster, you're entered into a tournament with other participants. Correct selections earn "Champion Points," and the player with the most points wins.   

The Sleeper bonus code matches a user's first deposit up to $100, meaning if you deposit $100, you would have $200 in site credit to use.

When playing Sleeper Picks, users draft a roster of at least two players with a maximum of eight. These players must come from at least two different teams. Players then decide whether they believe a player will go Over or Under a designated number in a given statistical category. The payout depends on the amount of predictions. The more predictions there are, the higher the payout multiplier is with a maximum of 1,000x the entry fee. 

Sleeper PicksVS also has users draft between two and eight players and decide whether those players will go Over or Under different statistical categories. Once you make your picks, your entry is placed into a pool against other players' selections, and the highest score in the pool gets 100x the entry fee. The other way to receive a payout in this format is to get enough correct predictions while not winning the contest outright. Then, you win your entree fee back times your VS score, or the points awarded for correct predictions in the contest. The more picks you get right, the higher your multiplier, and vice versa for incorrect picks. There are different types of Sleeper PicksVS pools that have different payouts and maximum entry fees that are only available depending on how experienced users are. 

Daily Draft is an eight-man, snake draft contest that runs weekly during the NFL season. The draft has eight rounds and consists of 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE and 2 FLEX (RB, WR, TE). Players then earn PPR points based on their performance that week. Users compete against seven other opponents who are in their draft. If there's an open spot in the draft not filled by a user, then a CPU takes over that team. If there's a CPU team in the league, it's possible users will compete not just against those in their draft pool, but in other leagues as well. That would mean it's possible there's some overlap between rosters. The three top finishers in the draft pool at the end of the day are paid out. 

At DraftKings, when you deposit at least $5 into your account, you receive one free entry into a DraftKings Daily Fantasy contest.

DraftKings offers a wide range of different contests. We'll start with Single-Game Showdown, which is where you create a team using players from two teams in a single game while staying under a salary cap. Each user is given $50,000 in digital currency to make a team, with each player given a different dollar amount based on their recent performance. The salary cap format is also in other contests, such as 50-50s and tournaments.

Single Stat is where you draft three players to your roster with the goal of seeing who can get the most of a single statistic. There's no salary cap or Fantasy points involved here. Head-to-Head is a one-on-one format where two users face off, and the winner is who has the most Fantasy points. 

Best Ball is a season-long format where you draft a Fantasy team in a snake draft. In Best Ball, only your highest-scoring players are used and you don't need to set a lineup week to week. Prizes are paid out at the end of the contest, which is oftentimes at the end of the season.

FanDuel's offer for new users is $60 in bonus credit after playing $5.

FanDuel has many different contests for users to choose from. One of those is the popular single-game salary cap format, which is where users create a full team using a salary cap of $60,000 where players are priced at different totals. Then, teams accrue Fantasy points with the winner having the most. 

In daily snake drafts, users and opponents draft teams via snake draft format where the first pick of one round then has the final pick of the next round and so on. In multi-game slates, you draft six players. In single-game formats, you draft four. The goal is for those players to score the most Fantasy points. There's no salary cap for this format. 

Best Ball is a season-long format where users draft teams via snake drafts with their opponents. Unlike regular Fantasy matchups where you have to set a lineup and choose who is and isn't on your bench, in Best Ball, you just draft players and your top-scoring players are who are used for your team. Players accrue points throughout the season and the team with the highest cumulative score at the end of the season wins. 

ParlayPlay matches your first deposit by up to $100, meaning if you deposit $100, you will then have $200 to use with the platform.

The standard format at ParlayPlay is a higher/lower game where you choose whether a player will exceed or fall short in a statistical category. For example, users may have to pick whether Saquon Barkley will rush for more or fewer than 85.5 yards. You can choose up to seven players for these contests, which increases your score multiplier. 

Combos is a format that takes a pair of athletes in the same sport and the user chooses whether or not they will combine to meet a statistical threshold. For example, it may take two quarterbacks and the user will choose if they think they will combine to surpass a total amount of passing yards. Say, for instance, the two quarterbacks are Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. Users may have to pick whether they believe those two will combine for more than 480.5 combined passing yards, or if they'll cumulatively finish below that mark.

ParlayPlay also runs a number of free-to-play contests that don't require an entry fee. Users, like in the standard format, choose whether players will go higher or lower in different categories. The better you do, the higher you are on the leaderboard, which increases the chances of you winning prizes. 

Boom Fantasy gives new users a first entry refund if that entry loses up to $100 in bonus funds. 

Toss-ups is a pick 'em or higher/lower format where users choose whether players will go Over or Under different statistical categories. 

Longshots and Favorites go hand-in-hand. In Longshots, the higher the risk, the higher the reward. Longshots is where you play around whether players will drastically over or underperform in different statistical categories, which can earn you greater rewards. Favorites is the opposite, where you choose just one side of matchups by selecting the favored side. 

Our DFS Site of the Week is Underdog, which is offering new users $75 in promo credits after first playing $5.

Underdog is also offering a wide variety of games for its users, such as higher/lower formats. It also offers bonus promo specials such as Vulture Protection, More Money Mondays, Discount The Dogs and Fill It Up Fridays.

DFS is legal in some form in 45 states plus Washington D.C. The states that don't allow DFS contests are Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Washington. 

Some states allow both traditional DFS and pick 'em contests, while some choose one over the other. Traditional DFS are peer vs. peer contests, such as salary cap contests through DraftKings or FanDuel. 

Pick 'em contests are formats where you choose whether a player will go Over or Under a certain statistical category. Pick 'em contests aren't available in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, despite other DFS formats being legal.

And while DFS is legal in most U.S. states, not every DFS app is permitted to operate in each state. Here are the states where Underdog, Sleeper, Dabble, DraftKings, FanDuel, ParlayPlay and Boom Fantasy are each available. 

SportsLine DFS expert Mike McClure believes Underdog is the best DFS app, giving it high marks for its "clean design, quick entries and Best Ball drafts."

"Underdog feels like the most polished app of the bunch. It loads fast, looks great, and is super easy to use. The Pick 'em section is packed with player props across all the major sports – football, basketball, baseball, golf, and more. You can mix picks across different games and sports, and the app makes it really simple to build an entry in seconds," he said. 

McClure also lauds Underdog's Best Ball Drafts, saying it gives the platform a "long-term fantasy edge that the others don't quite match." 

"If you want both quick props and seasonal draft formats in one place, Underdog's hard to beat," McClure said.

What are DFS apps?

DFS apps are apps where users can play different Fantasy sports and, using entry fees, can enter contests or games and earn money if their picks do well. The types of games, entry fees and prize pools all differ from app to app. 

What is the best DFS app?

SportsLine DFS expert Mike McClure rates Underdog as the best DFS app, giving it high praise for its design, ability to craft quick entries and its Best Ball format. 

What is a salary cap in DFS?

Some DFS formats have users create teams using a salary cap. In this format, players are valued at different dollar amounts, and users have to make a roster of these players while not exceeding the salary cap. At FanDuel, for instance, a typical salary cap for a game is $60,000. 

Are DFS apps available everywhere in the United States?

Some form of DFS is available in 45 of 50 states in the United States, as well as Washington D.C. It's also legal in some states, like California and Texas, where sports betting isn't legal.

Where is DFS not available in the United States?

Five states currently have no form of DFS available – Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Washington state.

Brandon Gustafson