DraftKings has unveiled a brand new standalone app for real-money prediction markets, turning into the newest main participant to enter a discipline that features crypto-native platforms like Polymarket and Robinhood’s occasion contracts.
The product, referred to as DraftKings Predictions, lets customers commerce on the outcomes of real-world occasions, beginning with sports activities and finance, the corporate introduced on Friday.
It’s registered with the U.S. Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC) and the Nationwide Futures Affiliation and can be out there in 38 states to purchase and promote occasion contracts.
To deepen its market choices, DraftKings will hook up with exchanges like CME Group and plans to include Railbird Applied sciences, which it not too long ago acquired. That integration is anticipated to broaden the kinds of out there markets and enhance economics over time, it stated.
This transfer places DraftKings in direct competitors with Polymarket, a preferred crypto-based prediction market platform, and Robinhood (HOOD), which earlier this yr launched occasion contracts for sports activities outcomes. Not like Polymarket, which depends on blockchain-based infrastructure and stablecoins, DraftKings operates totally inside the current monetary system and app ecosystem.
Apart from the AI increase, prediction markets have quietly change into one of many greatest monetary tales of the yr. As soon as a distinct segment nook of crypto, markets for betting on real-world outcomes — from elections to sports activities to financial information — have surged into the mainstream. Platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi have seen record-breaking volumes, drawing in retail merchants and hedge funds alike, and change into double-digit billion greenback firms.
What’s driving the shift is a mixture of regulatory readability and cultural momentum. The CFTC’s greenlighting of sure occasion contracts has opened the door for extra structured, compliant merchandise, whereas the general public urge for food for real-time, high-stakes hypothesis has by no means been stronger.
