software engineer

customer experience associate

senior software engineer

operations associate

senior analyst

DraftKings

When I first joined DraftKings 6 years ago, I felt genuinely refreshed and excited. Unfortunately, that feeling faded quickly as I began to understand how the corporate culture operated. My experience overall was negative, largely due to management and communication issues that made it difficult to succeed.

I initially reported to a manager who heavily micromanaged, rarely communicated expectations, and scheduled 7–8 Zoom meetings a day—on top of the responsibilities of managing 15–20 people. It became nearly impossible to keep up with the actual work. The environment often felt reactive and unpredictable, and there were times we were yelled at for reasons that made little to no sense.

As I began to see the writing on the wall, I started documenting everything—issues raised to HR, email concerns, and discrepancies in direction. Once I did, the tone toward me shifted dramatically. Within a month, I was told my role “wasn’t working out” and was moved to a different position within the company.

My new team wasn’t much better. The feeling of walking on eggshells continued. We were constantly told what we did wrong but never given the “why,” which made improvement nearly impossible. Requests for proper training materials or SOPs (which didn’t exist) were ignored. Despite repeatedly raising concerns and asking for guidance, nothing changed.

Ultimately, HR conducted what felt like an ambush meeting and terminated me for reasons that were never previously discussed. Working in an at-will state certainly makes this easier for a company to do, but in the end, it’s probably for the best.

To be fair, there were some great people at DraftKings. But the core issue is senior leadership. Many simply do not know how to manage or lead effectively, and if someone in upper management doesn’t like you or your style, they will find a way to push you out.

Overall, my experience was disappointing, stressful, and not reflective of a healthy or supportive workplace.

DraftKings is a fantastic place culture wise. It feels very frat/sorority style where everyone likes sports and beer (among other cool cultures). However, their pay structure is a joke. There are several relatable companies that have just as many benefits and positive culture that pay $3-$4 more (if not larger pay structures). Some folks may make $2 or even $3 more than you in the same position with no extra experience or skill set. 
Since working here more than half my team has left for the same position or elevated roles at other companies that pay better and add more benefits to their employee experience. 

I would also say that their internal methodology in advancement and/or departmental change, is non-existent. Which speaks volumes of their organization and ultimate mission as a company. 

If you’re fresh out of college or willing to “wear many hats” (without any promise for advancement or pay upgrade), this is the place for you. 

If I could give any constructive feedback, it would be to sit down with your employees (entry level - executive level) to verify what you can do better for everyone. Benefits alone will not assist in keeping the people you want in your organization. Find ways to chart out actual internal growth roadmaps and show those to the employees that state they are interested in growing with the company. 
Unless of course you want to continue to act like a startup 10 years post inception and a successful IPO later. 

I had some great experiences in my years there. But there is a ton of favoritism, and your co workers are cut throat. You want there to be a competitive feel when going for promotions, but you cannot trust people here. They’ll shoot you down and report absolutely anything in order to give themselves a better shot. You’ll also get underpaid, and be expected to handle a workload of 3 different roles while being paid for only 1. They sell a cool and hip culture, but they are just as corporate as ESPN. Grateful for the time I worked there, the place has great benefits and some cool perks. But you will deal with some of the most vanilla, and shallow people who lack true perspective, and cultural awareness. Cool place to gain some experience in a growing sports betting industry, but beware they do not see a lot of their employees as humans, but robots who need to just shut up and work. Some people get away with things that others won’t. Also, never show emotion or be real about anything because many of the people lack emotional awareness. They look at people weird if they’re psychologically affected by anything outside of work (death of a family member, a pandemic, etc lol). Like I said grateful for the experience I gained there, but leaving was a breathe of fresh air.

Typical Day - Stressful, Fearful and Long. Forced to perform even if the opportunity is not available. No tools, No Knowledge Base, Managers/Supervisors don't care about you and will constantly take credit for all your effort.

What I learned? - Not a company I would recommend to anyone, not even my enemies. You are tossed into a horribly managed CRM systems, where players are so fed up of macro responses and autonomous customer support. You are expected to be the hero to change that, when you can't make up for the department's failures as a whole, you are discarded like trash.

Management-  Horrible, Absentee, Glory hogs of your effort and minimal employee appreciation or incentives, advancement.

Hardest part of the job? - Convincing yourself that this is worth continuing to do because you need to make a living, despite the blatant inconsistencies and lack of  comparable work ethic from the company as a whole.

Most enjoyable part of the Job? - You work from home. That's it.

Schedules often change making it impossible to have a set schedule especially if you are a single mom this can be a con. 

You must get licensed in order to work they will give you time but if you have a background from years ago it can affect your position and they will fire you no matter if you’re doing a great job and got promoted.

You are working on a Hybrid schedule in other words having co workers that you don’t know. Better get close to someone during training!

They will not hire none of your referrals even if they’re more qualified than yourself! So don’t waste your time.

The managers are mostly cool there. The atmosphere is fun and the PTO is great. You might get stuck with a bad schedule for the first year , they give you a small ddash budget on Sundays. The pay could’ve been better no promotion during the first year. But they have a really good benefit package. Overall not a bad company will recommend. 



I could not of been luckier to have the opportunity to be an Inter at DraftKings. Every day i would commute to the city and get to work with a young working atmosphere who all love there job. Everyone who works here does so because they love being involved with sports. A typical day includes lots of communication, working directly with the CEO, CPO, CFO, COO, the marketing team, design team and the product team. Management at DraftKings did a remarkable job in hiring the right employees. They all want to contribute to the business because they enjoy there jobs and love what they do. The hardest part of the job is when i have nothing to do and I try to come up with an idea myself and then creating my idea to reality. There happens to be a professional grade ping pong table that employees play throughout the day.

DraftKings is exactly what you'd expect a software company in the business of fantasy sports that has a bunch of ex-poker pros in its analytics team would be. The beer taps flowing at lunch was never surprising. Hearing managers refer to the women who reported into them as "girls" was never surprising. The fact that employees were fired for unwanted advances on coworkers wasn't surprising.

The on call rotation can be rough... being woken up in the middle of the night at least once per rotation was the norm. During the football season, expect to work a Sunday (and get a weekday off in exchange). 

But if you love sports, love fantasy sports, and want to be surrounded by coworkers who love those things, as well, DraftKings has a lot to offer.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The Culture and people you work with are amazing. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The company requires you to operate outside of your position without compensation often. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment is very stressful but the culture of the company is fairly decent depending on which department you work under.  

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typcial day consists of multiple meetings outside of your normal duty schedule which does not include the 10-12 hours of actual work that is needed for this role.

The culture is very relaxed, informal and heavily focused on KPI’s and constantly introducing new ideas and initiatives. But there often isn’t strong long-term structure or follow-through behind them. Over time, leadership has recognized some operational inconsistencies and responded with restructuring and much stricter management approach to compensate for the lack of structure that had existed previously. Its created a significant shift in the work environment, and ultimately it highlighted the importance of balance between innovation, accountability, consistency, and sustainable processes within the organization.

barely any appreciation for hard work. If theres no manager working they make the regular employees do their job. the only manager in the whole building would gate keep and keep employees from being promoted / getting hours . alot of great workers there for multiple years QUIT because the company hired multiple new workers making way more money than the original people and instead of promoting the senior workers they made just them work more by training all the new people until they just didnt show up anymore. imagine that 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Software engineer 24 salaries reported	$146,125 per year
Customer experience associate 18 salaries reported	$19.57 per hour
Senior software engineer 21 salaries reported	$157,305 per year
Operations associate 23 salaries reported	$17.56 per hour
Senior analyst 37 salaries reported	$92,226 per year

Working at DraftKings: Company Overview and Reviews

DraftKings

DraftKings Ratings

Popular jobs at DraftKings

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected