[3] News publication Quartz described DRL as feeling "like from Star Wars" with "hopes [of becoming] the Formula One, NASCAR and MotoGP of drone racing.

[9] It will invite teams of university students and technologists to design an AI framework capable of flying a drone through DRL courses without human intervention and compete for a chance to win $1,000,000 in prizes.

[9] DRL CEO and founder Nicholas Horbaczewski started the league in 2015 after serving as the chief revenue officer of Tough Mudder.

[14][15] In September 2016, DRL announced global media distribution agreements with ESPN, Sky and ProSieben, and a close of $12mm in Series A funding, led by RSE Ventures and Lux Capital.

[18] That summer, DRL announced additional brand partners including Amazon Prime Video, BMW, Swatch, and the U.S. Air Force,[19][20][21] expanded media partnerships with OSN, Disney XD, and FOX Sports Asia, as well as a close of $20,000,000 of Series B funding, adding new stakeholders including WWE, Allianz, Sky, Liberty Media and CRCM Ventures.

[22][23] In 2018, DRL announced new sponsorship agreements with Lockheed Martin and Cox Communications,[24][25][26] as well as extended relationships with Allianz, BMW, the U.S. Air Force, and Fatshark.

"[35] All DRL drones are identical in spec, but are covered in hundreds of ultra-bright LEDs to help viewers easily follow the action.

[44] In July 2017, Ryan Gury and his team of drone engineers designed and hand built the DRL RacerX, the former Guinness World Record holder for the Fastest Ground Speed by a Battery-powered Remote-controlled Quadcopter.

The winner of the competition earns a spot as the official Swatch Pilot in The Drone Racing League with a $75,000 professional contract.

[51] Races took place across the country at venues such as the Miami Dolphins NFL HardRock Stadium, the abandoned Hawthorne Mall in Los Angeles, a laboratory in New York, a paper mill in Hamilton, Ohio and an auto plant in Detroit.

[36] Races in 2017 took place at the Miami Dolphins NFL Sunlife Stadium, an emergency response and disaster training center in Atlanta, a float storage warehouse in New Orleans, a paper mill in Boston (located in Fitchburg, MA), an abandoned motorcycle factory in Munich and in London's iconic Alexandra Palace.

[55] The Allianz World Championship held at Alexandra Palace became the first drone racing event to have featured betting markets at Paddy Power Betfair.

Defending champion Jet beat out fellow pilot Gab707 in the last heat of the final, claiming the title of the world's fastest drone racer for a second year in a row.

The season started at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Florida, where Vanover took his first level win at his debut DRL race.

At Chase Field in Phoenix Arizona, 2018 runner up Nubb took the level five win, in front of the first live audience DRL race in the United States.

The 2020 season was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and instead they planned a fundraising tournament called the 2020 FanDuel DRL SIM Racing Cup, to raise funds for DirectRelief's COVID-19 relief efforts.