After the Covid-19 pandemic made it impossible for operators to run most live events in 2020, the Sports Betting National Championship (SBNC) by DraftKings is returning for its second edition this November.
The three-day competition, which was first run by the operator in New Jersey in November 2019, comes back on the first weekend of November with a $2 million prize pool and a $10,000 buy-in, similar to the inaugural event.
The event begins Friday, November 5 and runs through Sunday, November 7.
DraftKings had an opportunity to learn from their previous mistakes, following the controversy in which the first SBNC ended, and will now be giving an opportunity to players in several states besides New Jersey to enter and compete.
The live event will be held at the EnVue Hotel in Weehawken, New Jersey, with participants invited to get together and compete at the venue, but with online bets also accepted towards the competition.
Rules of the SBNC
The SBNC is an open event, which means that all DraftKings account holders playing from eligible states will have a chance to enter the competition.
In order to enter the SBNC, players will need to pay a $10,000 entry fee. One half of that fee will go towards the prize pool, while the other $5,000 will be the player’s bankroll for the weekend.
With the $5,000 designated for the competition, players will have the option to bet on any NFL, NBA and college football matches over the weekend. Those who end up with the biggest bankrolls will also win a share of the leaderboard money.
The leaderboard winner will win the $1,000,000 first place prize, and another 24 players on the leaderboard will be awarded prizes ranging from $10,000 to $250,000.
Apart from buying in directly for the SBNC, players will also have an opportunity to qualify for the event through various DFS qualifiers organized by DraftKings.
To participate in the event, players will need to be physically present in one of the following states: Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia or Wyoming.
What happened in 2019?
While this competition offers an amazing opportunity for all the sports betting fans in the US in theory, there are some concerns about it among the sports betting community, as the inaugural event ended with controversy and heartbreak for several serious top prize contenders.
Back in January 2019, DraftKings organized the first SBNC with a $2.5 million prize pool that only allowed players who were physically present in New Jersey to participate, since the DraftKings mobile app was only available in the Garden State at the time.
This did not prevent numerous sports betting fans from coming to attend the event from all around the country, making it a massive success, at least for the first two days.
On the third day of the competition, a controversy arose after a majority of the entrants had their bankrolls locked up for an early matchup between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Chargers.
The game went on for longer than expected, and ended only slightly before the start of the match between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New Orleans Saints at 4:40 pm ET, as Championship participants awaited their payouts to bet on the later game.
The DraftKings app ended up paying some of the players, while others would have to wait longer, which meant they could not receive their winnings from the early game. This also meant they could not bet on the Eagles-Saints game and were at a major disadvantage.
Rufus Peabody, a professional sports bettor, would have likely won the competition had he been paid his winnings in time.
DraftKings will be looking to do better this time and provide all players with equal opportunity, but previous experience is a warning to those entering the competition of what they should be on the lookout for this time around.
