FanDuel Joins Prediction-Market Fray As New App Goes Live

FanDuel joined fellow sports betting giant DraftKings in the prediction-market sphere Monday, announcing the launch of its own platform, FanDuel Predicts.

To start, the app is available in five states: Alabama, Alaska, South Carolina, North Dakota, and South Dakota, according to a statement. More states will open up in the “coming weeks,” according to a statement. The app from Flutter Entertainment-owned FanDuel is connected to an exchange powered by CME Group, which is also partnering with DraftKings on its app. DraftKings’ launched Friday to cap a wild week for prediction markets.

FanDuel Predicts will offer markets on financial and cultural questions, as well as sports, although sports event contracts—across baseball, basketball, football, and hockey—will only be available in states where online sports betting is not yet legal. Sports event contracts will also not be available on tribal lands. The company intends to pull sports event contracts from a given state as online sports betting becomes legalized in that state.

Currently, 39 states and Washington, D.C., offer some kind of legal sports betting, but only 30 states allow online sports betting via mobile apps or websites. 

James Cooper, SVP of new ventures at FanDuel, said in Monday’s press release that the launch “will provide valuable insights into customer engagement with this new platform, enabling us to refine our approach as we expand to additional states in 2026.”

In November, the company said it would launch a stand-alone mobile app in December. 

The world of prediction markets, largely dominated by Kalshi and Polymarket for much of 2025, has expanded late in the year as traditional sportsbooks get in on the game. Fanatics launched its own platform Dec. 3, followed by DraftKings on Friday. Coinbase also revealed its entry into prediction markets last week through a deal with Kalshi.

FanDuel and DraftKings—which together hold a U.S. sports betting industry market share of more than 65%—join an increasingly crowded prediction-markets field. In addition to Kalshi and Polymarket, other players include President Donald Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, Crypto.com, Robinhood, PrizePicks, Underdog, and Novig. 

The rising prominence of prediction markets comes despite continued pushback from state regulators, many of which are up in arms because of the similarity between sports event contracts and traditional sports betting. Regulators in Illinois, Connecticut, Michigan, Massachusetts, Arizona, and other states have either issued cease-and-desist orders to companies like Kalshi and Robinhood, or sued them.

The spotlight on prediction markets is only intensifying as 2026 nears, in part because of the confirmation of Mike Selig as the new chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which oversees sports event contracts. During a recent hearing, Selig repeatedly deferred to the courts when asked about sports-related contracts, as more than a dozen lawsuits continue to wind their way through jurisdictions across the country.

Meanwhile, the CFTC last week asked the public to weigh in on regulation of prediction markets. Anyone can post a public comment through Feb. 2, 2026; as of Monday, there were only two public comments, neither of which touched on sports.