PrizePicks tax documents

Checked against PrizePicks’s own pages on 2026-09-13.

Do you owe tax on PrizePicks contest winnings?

IRS Publication 525 says winnings from fantasy sports leagues are gambling winnings, and you must include them in your income. IRS Tax Topic 419 says you must report all gambling winnings, including winnings that no Form W-2G reports.

Gambling losses come off only if you itemize, and only up to your winnings. From tax year 2026 you may deduct just 90 percent of them. A 2020 IRS legal memo concluded that the fee you pay to enter a daily fantasy contest is paid for a wager under 26 U.S.C. 165(d) as it stood then, the rule the 90 percent limit now amends. The IRS says the memo may not be used or cited as precedent.

None of these sources names pick’em contests, and we could not confirm whether the IRS treats them as fantasy sports leagues. Either way the winnings are income: Publication 525 also says you must include a prize you win in a contest in your income. What stays unconfirmed is whether pick’em entry fees count as gambling losses.

This section does not cover event contracts or sweepstakes.

Find your state’s guide and calculator.

Sources for this section

This is a fantasy operator, so there is usually no W-2G. It may report on a 1099 instead, which is a different form on a different rule. Some fantasy 1099s show your net winnings for the year and some show your total prizes, so check which one yours measures.

What PrizePicks issues

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  • Form 1099-MISC for Player Picks and all pick types except Team and Culture picks
  • Form 1099-B for Team and Culture picks, which are event contracts

Where to find it

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The Tax Information menu, in the main menu at the top left of the app. Forms are uploaded automatically and there is nothing to request.

When it appears

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Most forms are uploaded in February. Contact support if nothing has arrived by the end of February.

How it reaches you

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PrizePicks delivers it in your account.

The name on the form may not be the one you know

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Two companies, neither of which reads as PrizePicks. The fantasy business is SidePrize LLC trading as PrizePicks, with Performance Predictions LLC alongside it. Team and Culture picks come from Performance Predictions II, LLC, trading as PrizePicks Predict, a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant. PrizePicks does not say which name prints on the 1099-MISC.

The thresholds, as PrizePicks states them

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What PrizePicks says triggers a form

PrizePicks’s own wording, not the rule. Operators restate the law, and their wording is not always correct.

  • Form 1099-MISC at $600 or more in net winnings, which PrizePicks defines as winnings less entry fees and not total payouts
  • Form 1099-B for any realised gain or loss on Team or Culture picks, with no dollar floor

Where these figures and the rule in force differ

  • $600: Superseded for 2026 payments, now $2,000

The PrizePicks tax page was last updated in May 2026 and still states the pre-2026 figure, with no mention of the increase for payments after 31 December 2025. Underdog, running the same kind of product, publishes the new one. Treat this as what PrizePicks says rather than as the rule.

For a prize reported on Form 1099-MISC, the reporting threshold is set by 26 U.S.C. 6041(a), which section 70433(a) of Public Law 119-21 raised from $600 to $2,000 for payments made after 31 December 2025. Every dollar of gambling winnings is taxable whether or not a form arrives, so do not read a missing form as a missing tax bill.

The win/loss statement, which is not your tax form

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None documented. The tax page names no transaction history or export, so we found no self-serve way to check the 1099-MISC against your own records.

This is the document a session log is built from, and the one most often mistaken for a tax form. Per wager or per session, and why it changes your bill.

Worth knowing

  • This is not a W-2G. The form counts your net profit across the whole year, not individual wins.
  • A losing event-contract player still receives a 1099-B, because it is triggered by any realised gain or loss rather than by a threshold.
  • PrizePicks says your tax obligation starts when you have a realised gain or loss, not when you withdraw. That is PrizePicks’ view. We found no IRS guidance that settles how event contracts are taxed, or when.
  • PrizePicks can suspend payments and withdrawals until you provide a valid Form W-9.

What we could not confirm

We could not confirm how many forms to expect from a page PrizePicks publishes that we could read. We have left that out rather than guess.

Sources

PrizePicks’s own pages. Operator help centres change without notice, so each source shows the date we read it.

  1. 1. PrizePicks help centre, Taxes. Page states last updated May 16, 2026. read 2026-09-13
  2. 2. PrizePicks, terms of service read 2026-09-13

Work out your tax by state

Each state has a guide to its rules and a calculator for your own numbers.

The calculators treat all your losses, entered or estimated, as gambling losses. For pick’em entry fees, no source we found confirms that.