What New Jersey Bettors Should Check Before Claiming a DraftKings Promotion
This content was produced in partnership with covers.com.
A good promotion can lose its shine fast when the useful bit expires before you get around to using it. New Jersey bettors have plenty of offers competing for attention, but the smart move is simple: slow down for a minute, read the terms and know what you actually have.
Sportsbook promotions are everywhere in New Jersey, especially when football season starts getting close, but the big number in the ad is only part of the deal. Before you put down the qualifying bet, it helps to know when the bonus arrives, how long you have to use it and what actually comes back if that bonus bet wins.
The Headline Price Is Never the Whole Story
New Jersey has been paying a lot of attention to what consumers actually pay compared with what they first see advertised. Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed an executive order in June aimed at hidden or surprise fees, with state agencies told to identify them across industries and recommend ways to deal with them. Americans spend about $90 billion a year on unexpected junk fees, or more than $650 per household.
A sportsbook promotion is a different product, but the same basic habit is useful: read past the biggest number on the screen. A welcome deal can have a minimum bet or an odds requirement, with a deadline attached as well, and those details decide what you actually receive.
That $150 Comes With a Few Moving Parts
The current Covers.com DraftKings promo code offer for New Jersey players comes with a Bet $5, Get $150 in Bonus Bets offer. There is no code to type in, but there is some small print worth reading. The $150 does not arrive as one lump sum. DraftKings currently releases it as six $25 Bonus Bets through a click-to-claim schedule, with two $25 Bonus Bets becoming available every seven days over a 14-day period. Each Bonus Bet expires seven days, or 168 hours, after it is issued.
The qualifying first wager must be at least $5 and placed at odds of -500 or longer. Once that condition is met, bettors need to keep track of when each batch becomes available and when each individual Bonus Bet expires.
The qualifying first wager must be at least $5 and placed at odds of -500 or longer. Once that condition is met, the promotion pays the $150 in scheduled batches rather than dropping the full amount into the account at once.
There is another detail worth knowing before you use one of those $25 credits. A Bonus Bet is different from cash in the account because the promotional stake itself is not returned when the wager wins. A $25 Bonus Bet at +100 therefore produces $25 in profit rather than a $50 cash return. That distinction is easy to miss when the headline is doing all the selling.
That staggered release is worth keeping an eye on, because the offer does not become one big $150 balance you can forget about. Each $25 Bonus Bet has to be used within its own window, so timing becomes part of the promotion itself.
Personalized Deals Have New Jersey's Attention
New Jersey also moved in July to ban retailers from charging different prices for the same product based on a shopper's personal data. The law also pauses electronic grocery shelf labels for one year while the state studies how they are used.
The connection here is consumer habit rather than sportsbook regulation. Offers can be targeted or timed around particular conditions, so the sensible move is to check what applies to your account before assuming the headline tells the whole story.
Sportsbook Promotions Sit Inside a Very Big Business
There is a lot of money behind the welcome offers competing for attention. U.S. commercial sports betting revenue reached $16.89 billion in 2025, which was 22.6% higher than the previous year. Total commercial gaming revenue reached $78.62 billion, and direct gaming tax revenue came to $17.86 billion.
Those numbers help explain why a new customer is valuable. Sportsbooks are fighting for sign-ups in a market that is already producing tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue, so promotions are part of the acquisition cost rather than a random giveaway.
For a bettor, the useful response is neither suspicion nor excitement. Read the terms with the same care you would give any other offer involving real money.
Seven Days Is a Short Clock
The calendar can trip you up even after you have qualified. DraftKings Bonus Bets generally carry a seven-day validity period, which means 168 hours from the point they are credited.
Because the offer uses separate click-to-claim batches, timing matters even after the qualifying wager is complete. Each Bonus Bet has its own seven-day expiry period, so bettors need to keep track of when each credit is issued rather than treating the promotion as a single $150 balance.
A bettor who qualifies and then ignores the account for a week can lose unused promotional value without ever placing the intended wager. Checking the release dates takes a minute and saves a lot of head-scratching later.
A Winning Bet Can Still Become a Tax Question
Bonus money can turn into ordinary taxable gambling income once a wager produces winnings. All gambling winnings must be reported as income, whether or not a tax form arrives, and the rules changed for the 2026 tax year.
Deductible gambling losses are now limited to the lesser of 90% of annual wagering losses or total gambling winnings. Claiming those losses also requires itemizing deductions.
That makes record keeping worth doing from the start. A welcome promotion may begin with Bonus Bets, but any resulting winnings still belong in the same tax conversation as the rest of your sportsbook activity.
Read the Offer Before You Read the Odds
The current New Jersey promotion is easy enough to understand once you get past the headline. There is a $5 qualifying wager, the odds cannot be shorter than -500, and the $150 comes as six separate $25 Bonus Bets with limited time to use them.
That is really the whole job before claiming it: know what qualifies, know when each batch arrives and understand what a winning Bonus Bet actually pays back. The offer can then be judged on its real terms rather than the biggest number in the ad, which is a much better place to start before putting any money down.
If you or anyone you know has a gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER.
