How to block PrizePicks, Underdog and other pick'em apps on iPhone

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.

Pick'em apps like PrizePicks and Underdog don't look like a sportsbook. There are no odds boards, just player cards and two buttons: more or less. That's part of why they're easy to fall into, and why a lot of people who'd never call themselves bettors end up spending more on them than they meant to. Here's what pick'em is, why it's sticky, and how to block it on an iPhone without giving up the parts of sports you actually enjoy.

What pick'em apps are

You choose two to six player stats, like a quarterback's passing yards or a guard's points, and predict whether each lands over or under a line. Get them all right and your entry pays a multiple of what you put in. Some formats pay smaller amounts if you miss one.

These apps are usually sold as fantasy sports, and in many states they operate under fantasy rules rather than sports betting licenses. That status is shaky: several states have restricted the format or pushed companies to change how it works, and some pick'em companies have added prediction-market products alongside it. The rules differ from state to state and keep changing.

Why it's easy to lose track

• Small entries, many times a day. Five or ten dollars feels like nothing, until it's twenty entries a week.
• There's always a slate. Football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, tennis, golf, esports. Something is always about to start.
• It feels like skill. You know the players, so it feels like research, not chance. Losses get explained as bad luck and wins as proof.
• Promos. Deposit matches, discounted lines and "free" entries are designed to bring you back after a quiet stretch.
• It's social. Group chats share screenshots of winning slips. Losing slips mostly don't get shared.

Keep the league, lose the daily slate

You don't have to give up sports, or even fantasy, to get pick'em off your phone. A season-long league with friends, drafted once and played on purpose, is a very different thing from twenty quick entries a day. What usually does the damage is the impulse: the late game, the live line, the "one more to win it back".

If your league is hosted on an app that also sells pick'em, think about moving the league to a host that doesn't sell daily contests. Then you can block the pick'em app completely without losing your Sunday group chat.

How to block PrizePicks, Underdog and other pick'em apps on iPhone

1. Withdraw your balance and turn off promotional emails, texts and push notifications.
2. Check the app's own tools. Most pick'em apps have a responsible play section in account settings with deposit limits, time-outs or account closure. They're worth using, but they only cover that one company, and you set them yourself.
3. Block the apps by name. Settings > Screen Time > App Limits > Add Limit. Pick PrizePicks, Underdog and any similar app, set 1 minute and turn on Block at End of Limit.
4. Consider the age limit. In Content & Privacy Restrictions, the age limit for Apps hides every app above it. Check each pick'em app's rating on its App Store page; if it carries the top rating, a lower limit hides it and stops it being reinstalled. It hides other apps with that rating too.
5. Block the websites. Under Web Content > Limit Adult Websites > Never Allow, add prizepicks.com, underdogfantasy.com and any other pick'em sites you've used. They all work in a browser as well as in the app.
6. Stop new ones arriving. Under iTunes & App Store Purchases, set Installing Apps and Deleting Apps to Don't Allow. New pick'em brands launch all the time.
7. Give the Screen Time passcode to someone else. That's what turns these settings from suggestions into a lock. Here's how a helper sets it.

The weak spot in a hand-made setup is the list. You'll block the two apps you know, and the next one will arrive through a friend's referral link. A maintained block list closes that gap.

If you're the one who's worried

Pick'em is often invisible to families. There's no casino trip and no sportsbook logo, just a sports app on the phone. If you've noticed money moving to an app you don't recognize, or someone glued to box scores for games they don't care about, it's worth a calm conversation. Here's how to start it, and here's what being a helper looks like.

Where Winner's Win fits

Daily fantasy and pick'em sites are a category on the Winner's Win block list, along with sportsbooks, casinos, sweepstakes and prediction markets: 340,000+ gambling sites in every browser, plus rules that catch new addresses. Screen Time shields the pick'em apps you choose. Up to four people you trust hold the key. They're told if protection is switched off, and nothing unlocks unless they all agree.

A planned, season-long league is still yours. Winner's Win is built around taking away the impulse, not your love of the game.

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

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