It’s Round Two of everyone’s favorite basketball tourney, which means promos galore over on the DraftKings Sportsbook.
That includes King of the Dogs, where $2 million in Bonus Bets will be split and distributed to users who opt in and place their token on a Moneyline bet on the lowest-seeded team to advance to the final 16 in the tournament.
DraftKings’ King of the Dogs is set to run three times this week: Thursday, Friday and for the entirety of Round Two on Saturday and Sunday.
On Thursday, High Point University was King of the Dogs! All 11,832 High Point bettors have received $170 in Bonus Bets, and you can catch up on all the drama from Day 1 of the contest by checking out Thursday’s King of the Dogs tracker. On Friday, there were fewer upsets, with the highest seed to advance being a pair of No. 9 seeds. Iowa and Utah State tied for the King of the Dogs title. The 5,989 bettors who used their token on one of those two teams will receive $340 in Bonus Bets, as you can see in Friday’s King of the Dogs tracker.
Who will end Round Two as King of the Dogs for Saturday and Sunday? Follow along below!
King of the Dogs Preview
DraftKings Network’s Dan Johnson broke down the Round of 32 and highlighted the following teams as King of the Dogs options:
- No. 11 Texas over No. 3 Gonzaga
- No. 7 Kentucky over No. 2 Iowa State
Here’s what the public is thinking:
King of the Dogs Live Updates
The Texas Longhorns Are Officially You King of the Dogs for Round 32 (9:40 a.m. ET)
Arkansas Avoids Upset and Makes Texas King of the Dogs! (11:55 p.m. ET)
While the No. 12 seed gave a valiant effort, ultimately the clock struck midnight on the Cinderella run of the High Point Panthers. The No. 4 seed Arkansas Razorbacks were able to finish with a strong run to take control of their high-scoring game and pull out a 94-88 victory.
Darius Acuff Jr. led the way for the Razorbacks with an impressive 36 points on 11-of-22 shooting from the field. Meleek Thomas had 19 points, while Malique Ewin had 14 points and 12 rebounds.
In the loss, Rob Martin had 30 points for the Panthers while Cam’Ron Fletcher came off the bench with 25.
The loss by the Panthers means that the No. 11 Texas Longhorns have secured the Second Round King of the Dogs contest prize and the bettors who placed their tokens on the Longhorns will split $2 million in bonus bets. Texas was one of the picks highlighted by DK Network’s Dan Johnson in his article for Saturday.
While the contest officially includes tomorrow’s games as well, no lower seed than the Longhorns will be in action, so Texas has secured the win.
Congrats to all the bettors who backed Texas!
High Point Hanging Tough (10:45 p.m. ET)
After VCU lost to Illinois, 76-55, the last team with a shot at taking over the top spot in the King of the Dogs contest is the High Point Panthers, who were the No. 12 seed in the West Region.
To claim the top spot, High Point will have to defeat the No. 4 seed Arkansas Razorbacks. At halftime, Arkansas holds a very slim lead, 43-42.
If High Point pulls it out, they’ll be King of the Dogs. If not, Texas will hold on. The contest for $2 million bonus bets officially doesn’t end until tomorrow, but no winner tomorrow will have a lower seed than Texas at no. 11.
Texas Takes Over the Top Spot as King of the Dogs (9:10 p.m. ET)
The No. 11 Texas Longhorns have taken over the top spot in the King of the Dogs contest by defeating Gonzaga, 74-68.
Matas Vokietaitis and Jordan Pope paced the Longhorns with 17 points each, with Pope hitting huge buckets down the stretch.
VCU can match Texas as a No. 11 seed if the Rams can rally to beat Illinois, which would cause the teams to share the title and bonus bets to be awarded to all the bettors who put their token on either team.
The only other team with a shot at taking Texas out of the top spot as the Kings of the Dogs is the No. 12 seed High Point University Panthers, who will need to knock off No. 4 Arkansas in the late game to continue their tournament run and claim the King of the Dogs bonus bets for their backers.
Texas joins Michigan, Michigan State, Duke and Houston as the first five teams into the round of 16.
Are Underdogs Bigger in Texas? (8:42 p.m. ET)
Texas and Gonzaga are tied at 51-51 with 9:05 remaining, with a spot in the next round on the line.
If the Longhorns can get the victory, they would take over as the leader of the Kings of the Dogs. While VCU could tie them and High Point would still have a chance to pass them to claim King of the Dogs later this evening, all of the teams playing on Sunday would be eliminated by a Longhorns win.
If Gonzaga comes back and wins, they would officially be tied with Michigan State University as the current King of the Dogs, although there are guaranteed to be lower seeds that move on later tonight and tomorrow.
Can the Longhorns be Our Long Shot? (8:05 p.m. ET)
We keep waiting for an underdog to get a win to take over the top spot in the King of the Dogs contest for Round 2. Could it be Texas? The Longhorns have the lead over No. 3 Gonzaga, 35-33, at halftime.
Jordan Pope has nine points to lead the Longhorns, while Gonzaga’s Graham Ike leads all scorers with 11. Dan Johnson highlighted Texas as a strong option, and the team also had the most money put on it of all underdogs on the moneyline.
Can they hold on and give us our first upset of the day and a strong leader in our King of the Dogs? The second half holds the answers!
Duke Keeps on Dancing (7:50 p.m. ET)
Duke was challenged into the second half, but in the end the No. 9 TCU Horned Frogs didn’t have enough to keep up with the No. 1 Blue Devils, who opened up the game and ended up winning 81-58.
With Duke getting the win, Michigan State still remains the official leader of the King of the Dogs contest on DraftKings Sportsbook. The chalk continues to hold, with two No. 1 seeds and a No. 3 seed so far with reservations for the next round.
Currently, it looks like Houston will be the next team to punch its ticket. The Cougars are crushing Texas A&M 61-37 with just under 14 minutes remaining.
One of Dan Johnson’s top picks for King of the Dogs was Texas, and the No. 11 Longhorns are hanging tough, trailing 33-28 with just under two minutes left in the first half.
Mess With the Devil and You Get the Horns (7:12 p.m. ET)
TCU was hanging right with Duke, tying the game 44-44 with just under 14 minutes remaining.
Duke promptly went on a big run, though, scoring the next nine points to open back up a 53-44 lead. Can the Horned Frogs rally and become the King of the Dogs?
Let’s see if Duke can become the third team in the Round of 16 or if TCU can pull it off.
In the other game, Houston is up 18 points over Texas A&M, so an upset in that matchup doesn’t look likely.
Can the Frogs Be The Dogs? (6:35 p.m. ET)
The first two games of the evening are underway, and the first two of three underdogs from the Lone Star state are in action. We’ve been waiting for a big-time upset, and could the Frogs end up being just the Dogs we’re looking for?
While Texas A&M is battling Houston (another Texas team), the TCU Horned Frogs are taking their shot at the Duke Blue Devils. If either team pulls the upset, they’ll jump to the top of or King of the Dogs leaderboard, passing current (and temporary) leader, Michigan State.
TCU is just four back of Duke at halftime, with the Blue Devils up 38-34 behind 13 points from Isaiah Evans and 10 points from Maliq Brown. Xavier Edwards is leading the way for TCU with 12 points.
King of the Dogs Still Wide Open (5:10 p.m. ET)
After two games in the Round of 32, the $2 million in bonus bets is still very much up in the air since the two teams who have advanced are No. 1 Michigan and No. 3 Michigan State. While Michigan State is officially in the lead for the contest, it won’t stay that way for the rest of the day.
The Spartans took care of Louisville, 77-69, giving us a second team from The Mitten State in the next round.
At 5:15 p.m. ET, No. 9 TCU could take the lead in the King of the Dogs contest if it can pull a huge upset of No. 1 Duke. No. 10 Texas A&M will have its chance to take the top spot against Houston at 6:10 p.m. ET, and at 7:10 No. 11 Texas could take the top spot with a win over Gonzaga. Later in the evening, No. 11 VCU and No. 12 High Point will get their shots to claim the top spot, but even if all the higher seeds win those games, Michigan State would be passed by whoever wins the game between No. 4 Nebraska and No. 5 Vanderbilt.
It seems unlikely all the top seeds hold, but taht’s what we said all day yesterday as potential underdogs continued to go down all day.
Be sure to claim your token and place your bets for your King of the Dogs selection, and remember that the winner will be the highest seed to advance from either today or tomorrow’s matchups.
Sparty up a Handful at the Half (3:58 p.m. ET)
Whoever wins the second game of the day will take over the top spot on the leaderboard for our Round 2 King of the Dogs contest. The No. 3 seed Michigan State Spartans have the advantage at halftime, 36-31.
The Spartans are looking to join their in-state rivals, the Wolverines, in the Round of 16. The Spartans won’t win the King of the Dogs contest since lower seeds are guaranteed to move on later in the day, but the Cardinals do have an outside chance as a No. 6 seed if they can complete the second-half comeback.
Michigan Marches to the Next Round (2:21 p.m. ET)
The No. 1 seed Michigan Wolverines became the first team to move on to the next round, winning 95-72 over the No. 9 seed Saint Louis Billikens.
Officially, Michigan is the King of the Dogs since they’re the only team into the next round and by default have the lowest seed. That won’t last long, though, since whoever wins the next game will take over the top spot.
No. 3 Michigan State is taking on No. 6 Louisville, and the winner will take over the top spot from Michigan. If Louisville wins, they have a shot to hold the top spot for a little bit if things go their way. They enter the game as 5.5-point underdogs, according to DraftKings Sportsbook.
Billikens Battling Back in the Second Half (1:41 p.m. ET)
The Billikens aren’t going quietly against the Wolverines, that’s for sure!
After Michigan went up by nine points at halftime, Saint Louis came out firing from long range ealry in the second half. Robbie Avila has three three-pointers in the game so far and is up to nine points and five assists, and has helped his team stay within striking distance.
Michigan continues to pour it on, though, and has a seven-point lead at 64-57 with just over 12 minutes remaining. The Billikens will need a late push, but their quest to gake the early lead as the King of the Dogs is still underway
Wolverines Up Nine at Halftime (1:11 p.m. ET)
The Billikens were able to keep up with the Wolverines early, but Michigan went on a nice run and built a 48-39 lead at the break. No. 1 Michigan’s defense was impressive with six blocks in the first half, including four by seven-footer Aday Mara, who has 10 points, four boards and three assists to go with his four rejections.
Saint Louis Starts out Strong (12:20 p.m. ET)
The Billikens are keeping up with the Wolverines early, and after a quiet day for underdogs yesterday, are we going to get some bite to go with the bark? Michigan does still lead by thre points with 15 minutes left, but hopefully, we’ll get a good game to tip off Saturday’s action.
Saint Louis Looks to Take Down Michigan (12:10 pm ET)
The No. 9 seed Saint Louis Billikens get the first opportunity for a team to claim the top spot in our King of the Dogs leaderboard for Round 2. Remember, it’s the lowest seed to advance from either today or tomorrow’s play that will be crowned King of the Dogs and earn a share of $2 million in bonus bets for the bettors that place their token on them.
Today’s slate has lower seeds on the board, so Texas, Texas A&M, High Point or VCU could wrap up the contest today since no team tomorrow has a lower seed than them. If Saint Louis wins this first game, they would only have to avoid those four teams winning to guarantee at least as share of the crown. Let’s get the action started!
How to Play King of the Dogs
- Opt in to receive your King of the Dogs token in the Promotions page
- Make a Moneyline bet on DraftKings Sportsbook and apply your token (minimum $5 bet)
- The lowest seeded team to advance to the next round will be considered the King of the Dogs
- If the team you wagered on with your token is crowned King of the Dogs, you’ll win a share of $2 million in Bonus Bets
For more information on this promo, click here!
