How PrizePicks works
You pick between two and six players and decide whether each will finish over or under a stat line, such as points or passing yards. In a Power Play every pick has to be right. Two correct picks pay 3x your entry, and six pay 37.5x. Flex Plays pay smaller amounts if you miss one or two.
What regulators have said
PrizePicks calls itself a fantasy sports game, and many states license it that way. The trouble started with its original setup, where you played against PrizePicks itself and it won when you lost. Several regulators decided that was just sports betting on player stats under another name. Florida sent cease-and-desist letters in 2023 and 2024, Michigan banned games that mimic betting on player stats, and New York made PrizePicks pay about $15 million in 2024 and stop its paid contests. Illinois’s gambling regulator and attorney general called some of its contests illegal gambling in 2025.
PrizePicks responded by switching all its US fantasy games to a peer-to-peer format in August 2025, where you compete against other users and PrizePicks takes a fee. That hasn’t settled it everywhere. California’s attorney general said in 2025 that all paid daily fantasy, peer-to-peer included, counts as illegal sports betting, although that opinion is advisory.
What the payouts tell you
If each pick were a true 50/50, a fair payout for two correct picks would be 4x, but PrizePicks pays 3x. That means you need to be right about 57.7% of the time just to break even, and the gap grows with more picks. A 6-pick Power Play pays 37.5x against a fair 64x. Good research can push your hit rate up, but most players won’t beat those numbers over time.
What it means for you
Whatever your state calls it, PrizePicks works a lot like a combo bet on player stats, where all your picks have to win. Keep a running total of entries against winnings for a month. Next to the payout table, that number will tell you most of what you need to know.
Questions people also ask
What does a 2-pick Power Play pay?
3x your entry. To break even you need to get about 57.7% of your picks right, while a fair payout on two coin-flip picks would be 4x.
Is PrizePicks legal in my state?
It depends and it changes often. Michigan only allows free play, and some states have no real-money play at all. Check the app for your state.
Does PrizePicks make money when I lose?
Under its original model you played against PrizePicks, so yes. Since August 2025 it says all its fantasy contests are peer-to-peer, where it takes a fee from each contest.
What is PrizePicks Predict?
PrizePicks' prediction market product, regulated by the CFTC. It offers event contracts on sports and culture, and federal courts are currently split on whether states can regulate sports event contracts.
Sources
- PrizePicks, ways to pick and payouts
- Legal Sports Report, fantasy operators pull out of Florida under regulatory pressure (2024)
- CDC Gaming, pick'em daily fantasy games officially banned in Michigan (2023)
- SBC Americas, PrizePicks to pay $15M over banned contests in New York (2024)
- Illinois Attorney General press release on pick'em contests (2025)
- CBS News, California attorney general says daily fantasy sports are illegal betting (2025)
- Deadspin, PrizePicks moves to nationwide peer-to-peer contests (2025)
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