Betfair recently launched Betfair Predicts in the U.K., giving its Exchange customers a fresh look as they take on other users in a peer-to-peer format.
Key Takeaways
- The trial update offers a brand-new look for its Exchange users.
- Betfair offered technological advice to FanDuel during last year’s launch of FanDuel Predicts.
- The UK Gambling Commission considers prediction markets to represent betting exchanges.
Betfair Predicts was released to a limited group of users to trial the new interface.
The company’s new brainchild is effectively a reskinning of the Betfair Exchange, which allows customers to trade on events in sports, politics, and entertainment. The updated interface will continue to utilize the Exchange’s liquidity supply.
“We’re constantly testing new innovations, and Betfair Predicts is an example of this work,” a Betfair spokesperson said in a statement shared with Covers. “This is a BETA product that will evolve based on customer feedback.”
Trading on Betfair Exchange is different from wagering on the Betfair Sportsbook. Customers purchase contracts based on “Yes” and “No” outcomes in specific markets that are real-time reflections of customer sentiment, whereas sportsbook bettors wager against house-made odds.
The company noted that the future course of the platform will depend on the customer response. It also stated trader feedback shows demand in the U.K.
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Future plans
Betfair has held active licenses with the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) for most of the 2000s. In 2003, it was awarded its first Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the innovation category, and in 2008, it received an award for its international trade.
The company left the U.K. for low-tax Gibraltar in 2011 but quickly returned. It has maintained operating licenses since March 2015.
Betfair’s history with the UKGC is part of why it believes it is “best placed” to offer a platform for prediction markets to U.K. customers.
Owned by Flutter Entertainment, Betfair assisted FanDuel with technical advice during the launch of FanDuel Predicts in the U.S. last year.
The Betfair Exchange has proved to be quite fruitful, tracking £84 billion ($112.9 million) in trades during 2025. That marked an annual improvement of roughly 10%.
Prediction platforms in UK
The idea behind contract trading is “to offer a simpler, more intuitive way for customers to engage with prediction-style markets,” Betfair notes on its website.
Prediction market news in the U.K. took off last year when sports betting company Matchbook announced its plans to launch the first prediction market platform licensed in the U.K. in an effort to keep pace with U.S. competitors. Unlike in the U.S., where prediction platforms are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and are not considered gaming entities, the UKGC oversees what it defines as gambling exchanges.
Companies that operate exchanges are also bound by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which regulates financial spread betting and maintains a retail ban on binary options.
