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How to block DraftKings (and every other sportsbook) on iPhone

Updated June 2026

If you've decided sports betting needs to stop, deleting the DraftKings app is step zero, and everyone who has tried knows it is not enough. The app reinstalls in fifteen seconds, and the website works in Safari anyway. Here is what actually works on iPhone, from weakest to strongest.

1. Delete the app and disable reinstalls

Settings → Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions → iTunes & App Store Purchases → Installing Apps → Don't Allow. This hides the App Store entirely. It works, until you toggle it back, which takes ten seconds and nobody ever knows. It also blocks every other app install, which gets old fast.

2. Screen Time app limits

You can put a one-minute daily limit on DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, and friends. The problem is the "Ignore Limit" button: willpower at 1 AM is exactly the thing you are trying not to rely on. A Screen Time passcode held by someone else helps, but the websites still work, and recovery passcode resets are a known loophole.

3. DNS blocking

A filtering DNS profile (NextDNS, AdGuard) can blackhole sportsbook domains across the whole device. Strong, but you can remove the profile yourself in Settings, and betting apps that pin their own IPs sail past it. Good as a second layer, and weak as the only lock.

4. Self-exclusion with real enforcement

The piece every DIY method is missing is not a better block. It is taking the undo button away from the future version of you who wants to bet. That is what a commitment device does:

• Apple's Screen Time technology (the Family Controls framework) shields the apps and their categories at the OS level, with no "Ignore Limit" button.
• A web filter blocks the sportsbook sites in Safari: DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Caesars, ESPN BET, bet365, and the rest.
• The blocker can optionally resist deletion while the lock is active. It is a setting you turn on, not something switched on for you, and turning it back off starts its own 72 hour wait.
• Ending early needs a keyholder's approval, given in person, followed by a wait of at least 72 hours, or a fourteen day wait if you go solo. If protection is switched off, your keyholder is alerted.

That last point is the one that matters. Any blocker you can quietly undo is a speed bump. One that tells someone you trust is a decision.

Also worth doing

• Self-exclude at the operator level: DraftKings, FanDuel, and BetMGM all offer account-level self-exclusion in their responsible-gaming settings. State programs (where available) exclude you from every licensed operator at once.
• Tell your bank: many banks can block gambling merchant-code transactions on your card.
• Talk to someone. The National Problem Gambling Helpline, 1 800 697 3738 (1-800-MY-RESET), is free, confidential, and answers calls and texts at any hour.