FanDuel Launching Prediction-Markets App—With Sports

When FanDuel revealed a planned prediction-markets push in August, sports were conspicuously absent. That has changed.

Next month, the sports betting giant is launching a stand-alone mobile app, FanDuel Predicts, that will feature an array of event contracts, including on the prices of oil and gas, gold, and cryptocurrencies, but also sports offerings across baseball, basketball, football, and hockey—although there’s a catch. 

Sports event contracts will be available only to users in states where online sports betting is not yet legal, such as California, Texas, and Georgia, and users will only be able to trade on the outcome of sporting events if they are not on tribal lands. When a new state legalizes online sports betting, sports event contracts will no longer be available there.

The idea is that FanDuel’s core offering—traditional sports betting—remains its primary business. But it knows it cannot ignore the rise of prediction markets, something it made clear when it announced a “groundbreaking alliance” with derivatives exchange CME Group.

Currently, 38 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. In addition to California, Texas, and Georgia, states that don’t currently offer any sports betting are Alabama, Alaska, Hawai‘i, Idaho, Minnesota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah. States that allow sports betting but haven’t legalized online sports betting include Mississippi, New Mexico, and North Dakota.

FanDuel says the new app will feature safety tools meant to help users “manage exposure, track spending and make informed trading decisions.” To sign up, users will need to provide their date of birth, social security number, home address, banking information, and a valid ID. 

“We can’t wait to bring FanDuel’s proven approach to product innovation into this dynamic sector,” FanDuel CEO Amy Howe said in a press release. “Our partnership with CME Group allows us to leverage their deep market expertise built over decades while delivering the seamless, accessible and trusted experience our customers expect.”

FanDuel, which is owned by Flutter Entertainment, said in August its new prediction-markets product will be regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a federal agency, while its traditional sports betting products are regulated on a state-by-state basis.

The company’s approach is similar to its main sports betting rival, DraftKings, which this month outlined plans to launch its own prediction-markets platform in the “coming months,” and said it will “enter many states with sport event contracts,” with a focus on those where sports betting is not yet legal.

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

Sports event contracts have garnered controversy because they appear so similar to sports betting. Traditional sportsbooks are regulated state by state. Kalshi, Robinhood, and others have been fighting various lawsuits over whether their sports offerings are legal.