How to block FanDuel and DraftKings on iPhone (and make it stick)

October 2026 · 7 minute read · By the Winner's Win team

If you need to talk to someone tonight: call 1-800-GAMBLER or text 800GAM. Confidential, 24/7, for families too.

If you've deleted FanDuel or DraftKings before, you already know the problem. Reinstalling takes about thirty seconds, your account and saved card are waiting, and the promo email arrives right on time. This guide is about blocks that still hold at 11pm on a Sunday: the free tools built into your iPhone first, then what to add on top.

Why deleting the app doesn't hold

Three reasons, none of them about willpower.

• The App Store is one tap away. Your login, your balance and your payment method all survive the delete.
• Both sportsbooks work in a browser. Deleting the app leaves the website wide open in Safari or Chrome.
• The person who deletes the app isn't the person who wants it back. The decision at noon on a Tuesday is made by a different version of you than the one watching a close game at night. A block you can undo alone in under a minute is a speed bump.

Sportsbooks are built to bring you back: boosts, pushes, "your bonus is expiring". Needing more than a delete button isn't a character flaw. It's a reasonable response to a product designed by people whose job is re-engagement.

Step 1: Turn down the noise in your accounts

Before you block anything, log in to each account once more and do three things:

1. Withdraw any balance. Money sitting in an account is a reason to unlock later.
2. Turn off marketing. Unsubscribe from emails and texts, and switch off push notifications in iPhone Settings > Notifications.
3. Look at the responsible gaming settings. FanDuel and DraftKings both offer tools in your account settings, such as deposit limits and time-outs. They follow your account to any device, which is useful. But they only cover that one company, you set them yourself, and limits you set can often be raised again after a waiting period.

Step 2: Use Screen Time, set up properly

Screen Time is free and already on your iPhone. Menu names shift a little between iOS versions, but the settings are the same.

1. Open Settings > Screen Time. Turn it on if it's off, and choose that this iPhone is for yourself.
2. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions and switch it on.
3. Block the apps by name. Go back to Screen Time > App Limits > Add Limit, pick FanDuel and DraftKings, set the limit to 1 minute and turn on Block at End of Limit. Once a passcode is set (step 6), only the passcode can extend it.
4. Or block every betting app at once with the age limit. In Content & Privacy Restrictions, find the age limit for Apps (under App Store, Media, Web & Games on recent versions). Real-money betting apps carry the highest age rating (18+ on current iOS, 17+ on older versions), so a lower limit hides FanDuel, DraftKings and most other sportsbook apps and stops them being installed. It also hides every other app with that rating, so check what else disappears.
5. Lock the App Store side. Under iTunes & App Store Purchases (App Store Purchases on some versions), set Deleting Apps to Don't Allow, and consider Installing Apps: Don't Allow so new betting apps can't arrive.
6. Block the websites. Under Web Content, choose Limit Adult Websites, then add fanduel.com and draftkings.com under Never Allow. Add the sportsbook, casino and fantasy subdomains you've used too.
7. Lock Screen Time Settings with a passcode, and have someone else choose and type it. More on that in step 4.

Honest limits: the web list only covers what you typed, and FanDuel and DraftKings each run several brands and domains (casino, racing, fantasy). And if you know the passcode, the lock is only a suggestion.

Step 3: Use a maintained block list, not a hand-typed one

FanDuel and DraftKings are two names out of a long list. There are offshore sportsbooks that change addresses every few weeks, sweepstakes casinos, pick'em apps, and prediction markets selling sports contracts. Known gambling domains number in the hundreds of thousands. Ten typed-in addresses protect you from ten addresses.

What you want is a list someone else keeps up to date, running on the phone itself and covering every browser, including private browsing. On iPhone, that usually means a blocker that uses the DNS or VPN setting. iPhone allows one of those at a time, so pick one and stick with it. Free and low-cost options exist (our honest comparison covers Gamban and BetBlocker), and so does ours.

Step 4: Give the passcode to someone else

This is the step most guides skip, and it's the one that makes the rest work. Ask a partner, sibling, parent, friend or sponsor to set the Screen Time passcode on your phone, in person, while you look away. When iPhone offers to let your Apple Account recover the passcode, they should tap Cancel or Skip. If your own Apple Account can reset it, so can you at 11pm.

It isn't about punishment. It's about making the late-night decision need two people instead of one. If you'd like to send them instructions, here's a step-by-step guide written for the person holding the code.

Step 5: Decide now what happens if it comes off

Screen Time alone never tells anyone anything. If you find a way around it, nobody knows. So agree with your person, ahead of time, what happens if you slip or switch something off: a text, not a lecture. The goal is no secrets, not a perfect record.

Where Winner's Win fits

Winner's Win does steps 2 to 5 in one setup. The site block covers 340,000+ gambling sites, FanDuel and DraftKings included, in every browser. Screen Time shields the betting apps you pick. A guided lock session walks your helper through setting the code. Up to four people you trust are told if protection is switched off, and nothing unlocks unless they all agree, followed by a one-hour wait.

Plans and prices are on our pricing section. Your helpers never pay. If your subscription ends, blocking stops.

If the price is what stops you, do the free steps above tonight. They're worth it on their own. And if you're reading this because you're worried about someone else, start with the helper section.

Questions