Underdog Fantasy Review

In this review, we'll break down the different features of Underdog Fantasy, explain each game format, dig into their mobile app and customer support, and plenty more. But if you're looking for an honest take on whether or not you should play Underdog Fantasy, you've come to the right place.

If you're in a US state in which sports betting isn't legal or you just prefer the gameplay of Pick'em and DFS to traditional betting, you've come to the right place. Underdog Fantasy is a safe and trustworthy platform that offers a ton of fun games and an impressive array of sports. Maybe you want to bet on sports but aren't in a state in which sports betting is legal; maybe you prefer a DFS platform that allows you to make real money. No matter your use case for Underdog Fantasy, we think you'll be pleased with what you find.

Underdog Fantasy is one of the best sportsbook alternatives in the US right now

While some of the naming conventions can be a bit confusing for players, as the company attempts to remain compliant across as many states as possible, Underdog is generally a user-friendly platform that's intuitive and easy to figure out. And while they may categorize games in a confusing manner at times — we'll get into this more below — most sports fans can figure out what type of game is on offer based on the setup of the page and the bets available.

With a solid app, responsive customer support and plenty of valid payment methods, Underdog isn't just a great platform for making picks on games; it's also a platform you can trust. One of Underdog Fantasy's best features is their generous welcome bonus — let's dig into their offer and find out exactly how much you can earn just by making a deposit Underdog Fantasy.

The most important thing to know before making a deposit on Underdog Fantasy is what their welcome offer is and how you can take advantage of it. Luckily, Underdog Fantasy offers a generous welcome bonus that becomes more lucrative the more you spend. Let's break down the details of their offer.

Right now, new users who sign up and deposit between $10 and $1,000 will have their first deposit instantly matched with a bonus of up to $1,000. This means if you deposit the full $1,000, your account balance will double to $2,000, giving you more funds to use on your favorite fantasy matchups.

Of course, you won't be able to withdraw the bonus funds until you've used them in a wager on Underdog Fantasy. So while you shouldn't look at their welcome bonus as a way to earn a quick $1,000, you can still make a deposit of any amount and play with your bonus funds before spending your deposited funds.

We consider this one of the best promotions available because you get rewarded just for depositing — no need to place or win any wagers upfront. As with most promotions, bonus funds must be played through at least once within 14 days before they can be withdrawn.

While many sportsbooks and sports betting sites have multiple welcome offers or a package of options to choose from, Underdog Fantasy knows where their bread is buttered — their welcome offer is generous and can accommodate any bettor from beginner to expert. But if you're looking for more ways to get a leg up when playing Underdog Fantasy's games, there are always a handful of promotions available to you.

Gimme Picks

My favorite offer from Underdog's available promotions is Gimme Picks in their Champions pick'em game. The whole point of the game is to build a parlay — Champions requires two picks or more to play — so getting a free pick can greatly increase your chances of winning money.

Profit Boosts

Underdog offers a ton of profit boosts on major sports throughout the course of the year. For example, their "Quick Buckets" offer is a 20% profit boost on first-quarter points in NBA games; their "Heavy Hitters" promo is a 20% profit boost on MLB home runs; their "Slap Shot" offer is a 20% profit boost on shots in NHL games. You get the idea.

Referral Bonus

Like most sportsbooks, DFS sites and pick'em games, Underdog Fantasy offers a bonus to anyone who refers another user to the platform and makes a deposit. Underdog users get $10 added to their account for each friend they refer.

One of Underdog Fantasy's biggest strengths is their enormous array of sports and leagues available in their Champions pick'em game. Underdog's marquee game features a betting variety that rivals top sportsbooks and outpaces almost every pick'em game on the market.

Unfortunately, their Best Ball game has fewer sports available — likely because filling draft rooms for betting on disc golf might prove more difficult than NFL drafts, so we get it. Regardless, we've compiled a list of sports available for you to make picks on below.

In this section, we'll not only walk you through each type of game offered on Underdog Fantasy; we'll also explain some of the nomenclature that can make certain Pick'em games confusing or difficult to find on Underdog. The games fall in one of two categories: Pick'em and Drafts.

Underdog features a few different Pick'em games: Higher/Lower and Rivals, with Champions serving as an alternative Pick'em game for users in states in which traditional Pick'em isn't available. Underdog also features Ladders and Streaks games that are spin-offs of the Pick'em format. While all Pick'em games allow users to pick how they think an athlete will perform in a given contest, the rules vary quite a bit.

Before we break down each format, a quick note on how to select which Pick'em game you want to play. On the web, as shown in the screenshot below, users can toggle between Higher/Lower and Rivals in a drop-down near the top of the screen. If you're in a state where Pick'em isn't legal, you'll see Champions offered instead.

Higher/Lower

When you're talking about any Pick'em game, you're probably talking about some form of Higher/Lower — it's an opportunity for sports fans to predict whether a player will go over or under a pre-selected stat line in a given contest.

The thing that sticks out to me about Underdog's Higher/Lower game is that it simulates the process of building a player prop parlay on a traditional sportsbook. Users can choose higher or lower on player projections for a chance to win their money back many times over.

But while Higher/Lower games on Underdog carry most of the traditional elements of a Pick'em game, it's important to note that Underdog does not allow you to make a Higher/Lower pick on just one stat projection for one athlete; you have to select at least two, which makes winning Higher/Lower contests difficult to win, but makes the payouts more lucrative.

Here's a breakdown of how picks are scored in Higher/Lower:

Rivals

Rivals is the second style of Pick'em game available on Underdog Fantasy. Like Higher/Lower, users can make predictions on projected stats for an athlete on a given night. However, Rivals functions as a matchup between two athletes, and users can choose which athlete will have a higher output (or lower, for sports like golf) for a given stat each night, whether it's points, goals, yards, etc.

Champions

Champions is a peer-to-peer version of Underdog Fantasy's Pick'em game that allows them to offer a Pick'em-style game while remaining compliant in certain states. Participants create a roster of 2-8 athletes, predicting whether they will hit over or under their projected stat lines. Correct selections earn the participant Champions Points, and the entry with the most Champions Points wins.

Ladders

In Underdog's Ladders games, users make three to five picks and progressively win a larger return depending on how well each pick performs. Each pick has three rungs to hit, and if all of your picks hit a rung, you'll earn that payout.

Let's say you've picked Steph Curry's points for an upcoming Warriors game. His projection may be 15+ at rung one, 20+ at rung two, and 25+ at rung three, so he has to get at least 15 points to contribute to a win, and if he gets 25 or more and the rest of the picks also get to their third rung projection, you win up to 100x your wager.

Streaks

The Streaks game on Underdog Fantasy is very similar to Pick'em, but with a twist. Start by making two picks; if they're correct, the next pick becomes available. If you make 11 correct picks in a row, you could be in line for a huge prize.

When Underdog Fantasy launched in 2020, it billed itself as a Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) platform. Fast forward a few years and not only have they added Pick'em games — they've also built out a more robust offering of draft games. Let's break down each draft format on Underdog.

Best Ball

Best Ball is the game that brought Underdog Fantasy to mainstream popularity. In this season-long contest, you draft your team for the upcoming year, and Underdog sets your lineup throughout the course of the season. That means you get to pick your team like a normal fantasy contest, but after you draft, you don't have to deal with the hassle of setting your lineup every day.

Battle Royale

Underdog's Battle Royale is featured all over their drafts page, with tons of contests available each day. Enjoy a classic snake draft with up to hundreds of opponents, which makes for big prizes for winners. Start by drafting in a group of 3-12 players before your team gets added into the main group with tons of competitors.

Sit n Go Drafts

Underdog Fantasy calls Sit n Go Drafts their "OG snake draft." Jump into a draft whenever you like, and as soon as enough players fill the draft room, you're off and running. Every contest has a different group size that picks in a snake draft format. Draft the best players available and win prizes based on your team's performance.

Tournaments

The final game format available on Underdog Fantasy is their Tournaments option. Enter into a snake draft with a modest entry fee, and if your team wins the contest, your winnings could be massive. Some contests require just a $3 entry fee and pay out up to $20,000 in prizes. Twist my arm, why don't you?

Here's a listing of all tournaments currently available on Underdog Fantasy:

If you're like most sports fans who like to wager on games, you're probably looking for a platform that doesn't just have a great website, but also a solid mobile app. When it comes to Underdog Fantasy's mobile apps for iPhone and Android, it's hard to find a better one on the market.

Underdog Fantasy's digital app offers a nearly identical user experience to their desktop gameplay. The look and feel matches any experience on the web — pages load very quickly, graphics are slick, and you won't experience the lags, crashes or page jumps you might have trouble with on other sports betting apps.

And while many DFS sites and sportsbooks are forced to remove certain web features on their app due to tech functionality, you won't find that problem on Underdog Fantasy. If you're an iPhone user, please keep in mind that you'll need to have your iOS updated to 15.0 or later.

Underdog Fantasy is not legal to play in every US state due to state gaming regulations, but it is available in more states than a traditional sportsbook. And since some Underdog Fantasy contests can be considered sports betting and some involve college sports, the legality of every game on Underdog Fantasy is not the same state-by-state.

Below, we'll walk you through the legal states for Underdog Fantasy and a few of its contests that have their own restrictions.

If you've created an account with Underdog Fantasy and you're ready to make some picks, all you need to get started is make your first deposit. Let's take a look at the payment methods offered and some key features of Underdog Fantasy's payment options.

Deposits

Underdog Fantasy permits the following payment methods for adding money to your account with a minimum of $10 per deposit:

Withdrawals

Withdrawing funds from your account is fast and easy on Underdog Fantasy. Withdrawals take 24-72 hours to be delivered, and they're offered in the following payment methods:

*While Underdog Fantasy lists their minimum withdrawal at $10, they will permit withdrawals of less than $10 for users who have less than $10 in their account. So if you only have five bucks and you want to withdraw it, Underdog won't stand in your way.

Underdog Fantasy has two options for customer support, and in our opinion, one of them is outstanding while the other could use a little work. Here are the options for customer support on Underdog Fantasy:

• 24/7 live chat bot on app & desktop
• Email: support@underdogfantasy.com
• Twitter/X: @UDSupport

If you're looking for a solid response from Underdog's 24/7 live chat bot, good luck. This isn't a live chat so much as it is a FAQ — Underdog's chat bot doesn't even give you the option to ask questions; rather, it gives you a list of options to receive help with, the options are limited, and users are simply sent to one of a handful of web pages that will hopefully include information that can help them.

On the opposite end of the customer service spectrum is Underdog Fantasy's email support method. We emailed Underdog support to test their response time and was astounded when a real person responded with a solid answer to my question in just one minute. That's extremely rare for a sportsbook or DFS site, and a clear indication that email is the best option for support for Underdog users.

As a final note in this Underdog Fantasy review, one of the things I appreciate most about Underdog Fantasy isn't related to gameplay, the app or payouts — it's their Twitter accounts. As we mentioned above, Underdog Fantasy has a Twitter/X account devoted to customer service in which they respond to user DMs and even post when Pick'em Rescues become available due to a player being scratched or getting hurt during the game.

And that's just scratching the surface. Underdog also has accounts for the NFL, NBA and MLB where they post starting lineups and roster news that may be helpful for playing Underdog games. But if you're a sports bettor like me, these Twitter accounts are outstanding for aggregating lineups in one place to help me make my picks whether they're on Underdog Fantasy or not.

Underdog Fantasy's Twitter/X accounts will also post graphics when a player is getting hot to show users the player's projections for an upcoming game. Who doesn't want to throw a few bucks on one of the hottest hitters in baseball to tally a couple total bases?

If you're interested in getting daily lineups and roster updates from Underdog Fantasy's dedicated Twitter/X accounts, you can follow them here:

• @UnderdogNFL
• @UnderdogNBA
• @UnderdogMLB