DraftKings Is Using AI to Supercharge the Harms of Online Behavioral Advertising (www.eff.org)
<div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item even"><p><span data-contrast="auto">Online sports betting company DraftKings </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/19/business/draftkings-ai.html"><span data-contrast="none">is using AI to target customers</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> who are most likely to place losing bets and respond to gambling promotions. This kind of targeting is a form of </span><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/online-behavioral-ads-fuel-surveillance-industry-heres-how"><span data-contrast="none">online behavioral advertising</span></a><span data-contrast="auto">, which is when companies personalize the ads they show you based on the data they’ve collected about you. The more data a company has, the more personalized the ad can be. While DraftKings is using AI to supercharge the harmful effects of online behavioral advertising, EFF has long </span><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/ban-online-behavioral-advertising"><span data-contrast="none">argued</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> that </span><i><span data-contrast="auto">all</span></i><span data-contrast="auto"> behavioral advertising should be banned.</span><span data-ccp-props="240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="240}">According to the </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/19/business/draftkings-ai.html"><span data-contrast="none">New York Times</span></a><span data-contrast="auto">, DraftKings is using its customers’ betting records to train a </span><a href="https://hai.stanford.edu/ai-definitions/what-is-machine-learning"><span data-contrast="none">machine learning model</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> to find losing gamblers. Once found, DraftKings sends these customers targeted advertising designed to lure them back to the site to place more bets—bets that DraftKings thinks will be losing ones. DraftKings has a business incentive to keep losing gamblers coming back to their site, because these are the users actually making DraftKings money. Unfortunately, those considered “problem gamblers” (people who repeatedly gamble despite harm to themselves, their finances, and their relationships) are highly likely to be targeted by this model. By re-engaging these individuals through targeted promotions aimed at keeping them on the platform, DraftKings is capitalizing on their vulnerability for profit instead of mitigating their risk.</span><span data-ccp-props="240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="240}">Predatory online behavioral advertising isn’t new, but companies’ use of AI to process data and target customers has magnified its harms. Online behavioral advertising incentivizes the collection of vast quantities of data to power ad tech. Adding AI into the mix means that even more data is collected to train and refine models. Because AI operates as </span><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/open-data-and-ai-black-box"><span data-contrast="none">a black box</span></a><span data-contrast="auto">, the humans building the models can rarely predict which data points are the most useful to the AI, driving them to continuously collect more data. AI also allows companies to process enormous data sets much faster, and, as a result, supercharges the harms of online behavioral advertising.</span><span data-ccp-props="240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="240}">A direct consequence of online behavioral advertising is that it provides the data the </span><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/online-behavioral-ads-fuel-surveillance-industry-heres-how?language=en"><span data-contrast="none">surveillance industry</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> needs to run. Data collected for targeted placement of ads is being </span><a href="http://calmatters.org/economy/technology/2026/09/whos-buying-your-personal-data-disney-gm-your-insurer-and-bank/"><span data-contrast="none">sold</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> to insurance companies, banks, and state and federal government law enforcement agencies </span><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/03/targeted-advertising-gives-your-location-government-just-ask-cbp"><span data-contrast="none">such as CBP</span></a><span data-contrast="auto">. ICE is also taking an interest in the data fueling ad tech: earlier this year, ICE published a </span><a href="http://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/411452e8b3614944b9c50cc3aa24fb42/view"><span data-contrast="none">Request for Information</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> “seeking information to better understand how the industry’s commercial Big Data and Ad Tech providers can directly support investigations activities.” </span><span data-ccp-props="240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="240}">DraftKings seems to be using solely “first party data” to target their ads, meaning that they’re using only the data they collect directly from their users and are not buying any additional data from third parties to fuel their machine learning model. This highlights how policy solutions that only limit third-party data sharing and selling would not be enough to prevent these predatory advertisements. Rather, policymakers must ban online behavioral ads. </span><span data-ccp-props="240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="240}">What DraftKings is doing with their targeted promotions is just one example of how online behavioral advertising causes real harm to real people. But there are ways to take back control over your own data: EFF offers resources such as our </span><a href="https://ssd.eff.org/"><span data-contrast="none">Surveillance Self Defense project,</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> along with other tips for how you can protect yourself </span><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/11/creators-police-location-tracking-tool-arent-vetting-buyers-heres-how-protect"><span data-contrast="none">on mobile apps</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> and </span><a href="https://privacybadger.org/"><span data-contrast="none">on websites</span></a><span data-contrast="auto">. </span><span data-ccp-props="240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="240}">DraftKings’ use of AI to target losing gamblers illustrates how ad tech evolves and how companies find new ways to use our data against us. This is why EFF believes that </span><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/ban-online-behavioral-advertising"><span data-contrast="none">all behavioral advertising should be banned</span></a><span data-contrast="auto">. If companies can’t send personalized ads, they’ll have less incentive to collect the behavioral data powering them. </span></p>
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<p><span data-ccp-props="240}">According to the </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/19/business/draftkings-ai.html"><span data-contrast="none">New York Times</span></a><span data-contrast="auto">, DraftKings is using its customers’ betting records to train a </span><a href="https://hai.stanford.edu/ai-definitions/what-is-machine-learning"><span data-contrast="none">machine learning model</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> to find losing gamblers. Once found, DraftKings sends these customers targeted advertising designed to lure them back to the site to place more bets—bets that DraftKings thinks will be losing ones. DraftKings has a business incentive to keep losing gamblers coming back to their site, because these are the users actually making DraftKings money. Unfortunately, those considered “problem gamblers” (people who repeatedly gamble despite harm to themselves, their finances, and their relationships) are highly likely to be targeted by this model. By re-engaging these individuals through targeted promotions aimed at keeping them on the platform, DraftKings is capitalizing on their vulnerability for profit instead of mitigating their risk.</span><span data-ccp-props="240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="240}">Predatory online behavioral advertising isn’t new, but companies’ use of AI to process data and target customers has magnified its harms. Online behavioral advertising incentivizes the collection of vast quantities of data to power ad tech. Adding AI into the mix means that even more data is collected to train and refine models. Because AI operates as </span><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/open-data-and-ai-black-box"><span data-contrast="none">a black box</span></a><span data-contrast="auto">, the humans building the models can rarely predict which data points are the most useful to the AI, driving them to continuously collect more data. AI also allows companies to process enormous data sets much faster, and, as a result, supercharges the harms of online behavioral advertising.</span><span data-ccp-props="240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="240}">A direct consequence of online behavioral advertising is that it provides the data the </span><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/online-behavioral-ads-fuel-surveillance-industry-heres-how?language=en"><span data-contrast="none">surveillance industry</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> needs to run. Data collected for targeted placement of ads is being </span><a href="http://calmatters.org/economy/technology/2026/09/whos-buying-your-personal-data-disney-gm-your-insurer-and-bank/"><span data-contrast="none">sold</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> to insurance companies, banks, and state and federal government law enforcement agencies </span><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/03/targeted-advertising-gives-your-location-government-just-ask-cbp"><span data-contrast="none">such as CBP</span></a><span data-contrast="auto">. ICE is also taking an interest in the data fueling ad tech: earlier this year, ICE published a </span><a href="http://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/411452e8b3614944b9c50cc3aa24fb42/view"><span data-contrast="none">Request for Information</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> “seeking information to better understand how the industry’s commercial Big Data and Ad Tech providers can directly support investigations activities.” </span><span data-ccp-props="240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="240}">DraftKings seems to be using solely “first party data” to target their ads, meaning that they’re using only the data they collect directly from their users and are not buying any additional data from third parties to fuel their machine learning model. This highlights how policy solutions that only limit third-party data sharing and selling would not be enough to prevent these predatory advertisements. Rather, policymakers must ban online behavioral ads. </span><span data-ccp-props="240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="240}">What DraftKings is doing with their targeted promotions is just one example of how online behavioral advertising causes real harm to real people. But there are ways to take back control over your own data: EFF offers resources such as our </span><a href="https://ssd.eff.org/"><span data-contrast="none">Surveillance Self Defense project,</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> along with other tips for how you can protect yourself </span><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/11/creators-police-location-tracking-tool-arent-vetting-buyers-heres-how-protect"><span data-contrast="none">on mobile apps</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> and </span><a href="https://privacybadger.org/"><span data-contrast="none">on websites</span></a><span data-contrast="auto">. </span><span data-ccp-props="240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="240}">DraftKings’ use of AI to target losing gamblers illustrates how ad tech evolves and how companies find new ways to use our data against us. This is why EFF believes that </span><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/ban-online-behavioral-advertising"><span data-contrast="none">all behavioral advertising should be banned</span></a><span data-contrast="auto">. If companies can’t send personalized ads, they’ll have less incentive to collect the behavioral data powering them. </span></p>
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