DraftKings Finally Reveals Details of Its Delta Partnership
When Delta CEO Ed Bastian announced a partnership with DraftKings at CES in January 2025, he told the Sphere audience that gaming had become a regular part of millions of customers’ daily lives.
He continued by saying that customers should not have to hit pause just because they were in the sky. The announcement generated immediate speculation that in-flight sports betting was coming to domestic flights. The reality was that it was not, and it never was going to be.
Delta and DraftKings launched SkyPicks on Wednesday, a free-to-play sports prediction game available on Delta Sync Wi-Fi for passengers 21 and older. Players make picks on real matchups, compete on weekly and monthly leaderboards, and the top performers win Delta gift cards. There is no wagering, no deposit functionality, no financial risk, and no cash payouts. The product launched with MLB contests, with NFL matchups to follow.
The legal reason for the free-to-play structure was apparent before the partnership was announced. The Gambling Devices Act of 1962 prohibits gambling on commercial aircraft. Senator Richard Blumenthal, the same senator who asked major sports leagues to disclose all their gambling partnerships in April, wrote to Delta and DraftKings in 2025, demanding they pause their partnership, citing the 1962 federal ban. The Connecticut legislature even briefly considered a bill to legalize in-flight sports betting on flights originating or terminating in the state, a proposal one aviation law observer described as facing stratospheric legal hurdles.
SkyPicks Value to Both DraftKings and Delta
SkyPicks functions similarly to existing in-flight DFS and pick-em products. Players answer eight to twelve questions about a game or series of games, covering player head-to-head performance and game-winner picks. Questions are available through Delta Sync Wi-Fi on personal devices, not seatback screens. Players must sign in with a DraftKings account or create one to participate.
That last detail is the commercial aspect of the partnership. SkyPicks is DraftKings building its client base at altitude. Delta monetizes the gambling-adjacent product without running afoul of federal law. DraftKings acquires new account holders who will encounter its real-money sportsbook when they land. Delta gift cards are the reward mechanism that justifies the age restriction and the sign-in requirement without requiring any actual gambling to occur on the plane.
The product sits alongside Delta’s existing Sky Hopper game, which offers SkyMiles members a chance at up to $400 in gift cards, and other content partnerships including New York Times games and The Athletic. Delta says sports content consistently ranks among the highest-performing categories on its in-flight platform. SkyPicks extends that engagement in a direction DraftKings can convert into paying customers on the ground.
Another Legal Loophole Where Prediction Markets Might be the Play
The speculation that followed the CES announcement was not entirely misplaced. One industry observer noted this week that the smarter play for a future airline partner might be to work with a prediction market platform like Kalshi rather than a traditional sportsbook. The CFTC has classified Kalshi’s sports event contracts as federally regulated financial instruments rather than gambling products, which could in theory provide a different legal path than the Gambling Devices Act permits for traditional wagering.
Whether that theory holds up in practice depends on whether the DOT and FAA treat prediction market contracts as gambling on aircraft, a question that has not been tested and that the current regulatory environment for prediction markets makes considerably more complicated than it might have been a year ago. The Sixth Circuit’s Wednesday ruling and the pending Supreme Court petition in the New Jersey case will shape what prediction market contracts are legally considered to be, which in turn determines whether any airline could credibly argue they fall outside the 1962 prohibition.
For now, DraftKings and Delta have resolved their partnership in the most legally conservative way available: free to play, no money, gift cards only as a prize, and a sign-up requirement for a real DraftKings account. The answer to whether you will ever be able to bet on the game from seat 23B is still no, at least for the foreseeable future. The question is interesting precisely because the legal ground underneath it is less settled than it was when Bastian made his Sphere announcement eighteen months ago.
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