NEW YORK- Global prediction market trading volume increased by more than 400% between 2024 and 2025, underscoring rapid growth that has continued into 2026.
- Global prediction market trading volume surged more than 400% from 2024 to 2025, reaching nearly $64 billion.
- Sports event contracts account for more than 80% of prediction market trading activity.
- Legal battles in more than a dozen states could determine the long-term future of sports event contracts in the U.S.
Prediction markets generated nearly $64 billion in trading volume last year, compared to under $16 billion the year prior, according to Next.Io. Monthly trading volume has increased more than a hundredfold from early 2024, when prediction markets were relatively unknown, to late 2025, jumping from less than $100 million a month to more than $13 billion in December 2025.
More than 80% of that volume has been driven by event contracts on sporting events, the report found.
In the most recent Super Bowl, prediction markets recorded more than $6 billion in trading volume, including a single-day record of more than $1 billion on the Sunday. Multiple other weeks this calendar year have seen nine-figure trading volumes.
Using information from gaming data analytics firm Blask, the report estimates prediction market search interest has nearly doubled from October 2025 to January 2026. That search volume nearly quadrupled between September 2025 to January of this year.
The report, and multiple operators, believe the sector could generate more than $10 billion in annual revenue by 2030.
Companies jump into prediction markets
This tremendous potential is why so many corporate leaders in both the finance and gaming industries have invested hundreds of millions of dollars despite an existential legal challenge that could effectively ban sports event contracts in the U.S.
Polymarket, the global leader by trading volume, and Kalshi, the top U.S. company, have recently secured investments, putting their corporate valuations at around $20 billion. Major financial companies including Coinbase, Robinhood, and the operator of the New York Stock Exchange have invested in prediction markets or launched their own platforms.
Both Kalshi and Polymarket are reportedly eyeing new funding rounds that would put their valuations at around $20 billion apiece - or nearly double DraftKings' current mark
— Ryan Butler (@ButlerBets) March 11, 2026
The three leading sportsbook operators by national market share - FanDuel, DraftKings and Fanatics - have also launched prediction markets. DraftKings expects to soon go live with a unified sportsbook and prediction market platform that will offer one of the two options to users in all 50 states.
FanDuel and DraftKings left the American Gaming Association (AGA), the nation’s most prominent gaming industry trade group, because of their sports event contracts, creating a rift between legacy companies with significant brick-and-mortar assets such as MGM and Caesars. As these companies sit on the sideline, unwilling to risk their land-based gaming licenses, online-centric operators are willing to invest hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 12 months.
Legal challenges remain
This is despite lawsuits in more than a dozen states seeking to ban sports event contracts.
A growing number of gaming regulators have argued in court that sports event contracts function as a form of illegal sports betting in violation of state law. Prediction markets have maintained they are a form of derivative trading, akin to stocks, and are regulated exclusively by federal law. Federal regulators such as the CFTC have given prediction market broad leeway to offer sports event contracts with minimal pushback.
Stakeholders on both sides believe a legal resolution is several years away, likely by the Supreme Court.
In the meantime, the markets have been the dominant topic of conversation in the industry, a sentiment reaffirmed at this week’s NEXT Summit NYC. Several of the conference’s panels focused on prediction markets and nearly all mentioned these platforms in some capacity.
For many speakers representing the legacy gaming industry, the illegal nature of sports event contracts was clear. Speaking during a conference panel, Tres York, VP of government relations at the AGA, said there was a distinct difference between regulated sportsbooks and trades on event contracts.
“LeBron James recording 10 rebounds is not a financial derivative,”York said. “It’s a sports bet.”
