With the NFL and states across the country increasingly embracing sports betting, DraftKings is looking to capitalize on the action with an all-new Super Bowl campaign that’ll allow over 10,000 users to place a free bet on the game—with a lucky handful of gambles potentially paying out $1 million each.

The promotion is a central component of the sports and fantasy betting platform’s grand return to the Super Bowl this Sunday, which will include a 30-second ad in the first quarter. It will mark the second consecutive year that DraftKings has aired a spot.

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The company made its Super Bowl debut in the game in 2021 when it aired two 15-second ads, both created in-house, which offered Super Bowl viewers the chance to bet for free on fourth-quarter action, such as who will score the last touchdown or if there will be a 20-yard gain. 

This year, however, DraftKings collaborated with VaynerMedia—which the brand tapped last year to captain its social media efforts—to take things one step further.

The actual commercial, which is titled “Fortune: Life’s a Gamble,” will introduce a permanent new spokescharacter for the online betting platform: the Goddess of Fortune, a leather-clad risk-taker who’s shown in the ad taking physical gambles from jumping out of a DraftKings-branded blimp to riding on the back of Evel Knievel’s motorcycle.

“As we thought about building on the success we had last year, we had the idea of introducing this new character, the Goddess of Fortune, that personifies the brand,” said Stephanie Sherman, DraftKings’ chief marketing officer. “She will continue to live on beyond the Super Bowl.”

In addition to featuring a brief cameo by a Knievel lookalike, the commercial features a guest appearance by legendary former New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath, both of whom seem to have curried the Goddess’s favor over the years.

The campaign also includes a series of augmented reality Snapchat filters, including one available nationwide that’ll be the first choice in the app’s filter carousel for users of legal betting age, and another location-specific filter at SoFi Stadium for fans who are attending the Super Bowl in person.

The campaign’s additional betting component is what may catch the eye of many who tune in to watch the Cincinnati Bengals take on the Los Angeles Rams on their home turf, though.

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Open now through 2 p.m. Eastern time on the day of the game, the promotion’s opt-in period will invite 10,000 users to place a free bet on the game. Five users will be given the chance to put $1 million on the line—the only catch is that every last dime has to be gambled before the game is over.

Non-million winners are allowed to bet on any pre- or in-game wager they choose, while the lucky five have a few more restrictions: they can only place their funds on money line, point spread, over-under, or point totals accumulated in the game.

The upped stakes may be enough to shatter DraftKings’ record weekend that followed its inaugural Super Bowl campaign last year. In 2021, Super Bowl Sunday became the site’s largest customer acquisition day ever, with DraftKings recording over 1 million individual entries into its Super Bowl contest, the brand said. But this year, they’ll also have some direct competition.

As sports betting more popular than ever before, Caesars Sportsbook has also announced plans to join the Big Game this year, following DraftKings with a 30-second ad in the second quarter that stars actor and comedian J.B. Smoove as Julius Caesar himself. Rival site FanDuel has also ramped up its marketing efforts this year. Although it won't air a national spot in the Super Bowl, the company hired Wieden+Kennedy New York as its lead agency last year as it prepared to double down on NFL advertising.

Hear more about Super Bowl ad plans on the latest episode of Marketer's Brief.