Sports predictions have found a new venue: 35,000 feet. DraftKings and Delta Air Lines have switched on SkyPicks, a free-to-play contest for passengers on Wi-Fi-equipped US domestic routes — built deliberately without a single feature that would qualify as gambling.
Key takeaways
- SkyPicks is live for passengers aged 21+ on Wi-Fi-enabled Delta domestic flights.
- Prizes are Delta Gift Cards, awarded via individual contests and monthly leaderboards.
- No wagers, no deposits, no entry fees — the design keeps it outside the Gambling Devices Act of 1962.
- Access runs through Delta Sync Wi-Fi and a SkyMiles account, which handles age verification.
- Launching with MLB contests; NFL follows later in the year, with room for basketball and other leagues.
The product does exactly what its name suggests. Eligible passengers answer questions about upcoming professional sporting fixtures and compete for Delta Gift Cards, with winners drawn from both individual contests and monthly leaderboard standings. What they cannot do is stake money — there are no deposits, no entry fees, and no way to lose anything by taking part.
That restraint is the point. Federal rules bar gambling aboard commercial aircraft, so the two companies built a product that sits on the entertainment side of the line rather than testing it. Delta first flagged the tie-up in early 2025 and has consistently framed it as live-sports entertainment rather than an onboard betting service.
From a CES teaser to a live product
The partnership was first announced on stage. At CES 2025 in Las Vegas, where Delta marked its 100th anniversary with a keynote, chief executive Ed Bastian presented DraftKings as the next addition to the airline's in-flight games.
"From fantasy sports to online adventures, gaming has become a regular part of the daily lives of millions of our customers, and you shouldn't have to hit pause just because you're in the sky."
— Ed Bastian, Chief Executive Officer, Delta Air Lines, at CES 2025
The announcement quickly prompted talk of in-flight betting. Within two weeks, Connecticut lawmakers had introduced a concept bill that would let passengers on flights starting or ending in the state bet through DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics, a proposal that raised obvious questions about federal law. Delta set out its position in February 2025: the planned collaboration would offer free gaming on passengers' own devices, it would not involve real money or SkyMiles, and SkyMiles members under 21 would be excluded.
SkyPicks went live on 29 July 2026. Delta calls it its tenth onboard experience. On a call with reporters the day before the announcement, Delta marketing chief Ranjan Goswami said the airline had no plans to add gambling later, and called SkyPicks a sports-and-games format with "no wagering, no deposits, no risks, it's just a fun contest."
How passengers actually get in
SkyPicks runs on personal devices only — phones and laptops. It is deliberately absent from Delta's seatback screens.
Getting in means connecting to the airline's complimentary Wi-Fi via a SkyMiles account and opening the Delta Sync homepage, from which SkyPicks can be launched. Players then sign in with an existing DraftKings account or create one. Delta leans on its SkyMiles records to confirm each entrant clears the 21-and-over threshold.
The questions themselves concern real fixtures: which side wins, which of two players outperforms the other, and in some contests a final-score tiebreaker. New contests open twice a week, seeded initially with Major League Baseball matchups. NFL contests arrive later this year, and the format can stretch to basketball and other professional leagues.
Entry is only possible while the aircraft is airborne, though an existing entry can be managed after landing. Submitting picks triggers an email link that lets participants adjust selections and track the leaderboard until the contest closes; winners get separate instructions for redeeming their gift card.
Each contest consists of eight to 12 questions, mixing head-to-head player match-ups with straight outcome picks. Selections can be changed until the game or match-up begins, so late injury news does not ruin an entry. Ties are broken by predicting the total points or runs scored in a game. Prizes go to the best performers in individual contests and on the monthly leaderboards.
Both sides are selling it as engagement, not gaming
DraftKings positions the launch as extending sports fandom into a window where fans are typically cut off from the action.
"At DraftKings, we believe interaction with sports shouldn't begin and end with the game itself—it should extend to every moment fans care about. Collaborating with Delta gives us the opportunity to reimagine what sports engagement can look like while traveling, bringing innovative ways for fans to stay connected to the games they love—even when they're in the air."
— Jeremy Elbaum, Chief Commercial Officer, DraftKings
For Delta, the logic is content strategy. The airline says sports consistently rank among the best-performing categories on its onboard entertainment platform, and it has been steadily layering in games and live programming to widen what passengers can reach mid-flight.
The reach of that platform explains the interest. Fast, free Delta Sync Wi-Fi, which requires a SkyMiles login, was installed on more than 880 aircraft by February 2025, and SkyPicks is available across the roughly 1,240 Delta aircraft that now carry it. Two years after the service launched, the airline said more than 3.5 million people had joined SkyMiles simply to get online in the air, and that Millennials and Gen Z made up 60% of Delta Sync Wi-Fi users. SkyPicks joins other onboard options such as New York Times games, Delta's own Sky Hopper game, which offers Delta Gift Card prizes, and content from YouTube and FOX One.
"With Delta Sync, our goal is to create an onboard experience that offers something for every customer—one that's connected to what customers love on the ground. For many of our customers, that includes sports. SkyPicks brings that passion onboard in a fun, free-to-play way."
— Ranjan Goswami, Chief Marketing and Product Officer, Delta
The regulatory line stays firmly drawn
There is no betting functionality inside SkyPicks, no account funding, and no paid entry. A passenger submitting picks cannot lose money doing so.
That architecture is a direct response to scrutiny. In 2025, US Senator Richard Blumenthal pressed both companies to guarantee their partnership would not bring gambling onto commercial flights, invoking the Gambling Devices Act of 1962. The finished product answers that concern by removing the wagering layer entirely.
Air travel is also covered by a specific federal provision. In 1994 Congress passed the Gorton Amendment, which made it unlawful for airlines flying to or from the United States to install or run gambling devices on board. DraftKings addressed the point directly in its launch materials.
"DraftKings designed SkyPicks as a free-to-play experience that does not permit customers to place real-money wagers while in-flight in compliance with federal regulation."
— SkyPicks launch release, as quoted by Casino.org
Creating a DraftKings account through SkyPicks also does not unlock real-money betting by default. Anyone who later downloads the DraftKings Sports & Casino app must complete the standard registration process on the ground, with real-money play remaining subject to the usual rules and state-by-state availability.
The commercial rationale is easy enough to read. A 2025 Pew Research poll found 22% of US adults had wagered on sports in the previous year, up from 19% three years earlier — a growing audience, and one Delta now has captive for a few hours at a time.
The same survey, which polled 9,916 US adults between July and August 2025, found that all of the increase came from online betting, even as public opinion cooled. Some 10% of adults said they had bet online in the previous year, up from 6% in 2022, while 43% said widespread legal sports betting was bad for society, up from 34%.
