Robinhood Derivatives, LLC announced on Tuesday it will launch professional and college football prediction markets within its app for the 2025 seasons.
Key Takeaways
- Robinhood will offer odds for the NFL, Power 4 conferences, and independents.
- Event contracts differ from sports betting odds since their prices are determined by consumers.
- Prediction platforms gained a boost when a federal court ruled in their favor against New Jersey’s gaming regulator.
Robinhood revealed it will offer prediction markets for all NFL regular-season games, as well as Power 4 and independent colleges.
The markets are currently being prepared and will be available for all users in the next few days.
“Football is far and away the most popular sport in America,” said JB Mackenzie, VP & GM of futures and international at Robinhood. “Adding pro and college football to our prediction markets hub is a no-brainer for us as we aim to make Robinhood a one-stop shop for all your investing and trading needs.”
The launch of football contracts will include markets for the first two weeks of the pro and collegiate seasons. The company will then add weekly matchups as the season progresses.
For example, Week 3 markets will become available once Week 1 concludes. That gives customers an earlier look at upcoming events, whereas sportsbooks typically only show their odds one week at a time, excluding major upcoming matches (such as Christmas games).
Contracts are expected to be tradable daily from 8 a.m. until 3 a.m. ET.
Growing quickly
Sports event contracts differ from sports betting odds. Whereas the house sets the odds for gamblers, the price of prediction contracts is directly influenced by consumer demand.
Robinhood has already reported more than $2 billion in transactions since it launched prediction contracts in late 2023. Its goal is to use sports and football contracts to grow its profile even further.
“We believe in the power of prediction markets and think they play an important role at the intersection of trading, news, information, economics, politics, culture, and sports,” Robinhood’s announcement reads. “We currently offer contracts across crypto, economics, financials, sports, culture, and more, with others being added regularly. Ultimately, our goal is to enable anyone, anywhere, to trade, invest or hold any financial asset and conduct any financial transaction through Robinhood.”
Robinhood attempted to launch March Madness contracts earlier this year but later pulled them. It also had Super Bowl contracts, which it also took down, leading up to the new launch of football contracts.
Prediction platforms undergo legal battles
Sports contracts from prediction platforms have proven to be a divisive topic. Numerous state regulators believe these platforms should be prohibited from offering contracts since they essentially act as sports betting odds, yet the platforms are not held liable to state regulation.
Prediction platforms argue they are in compliance with the guidelines established by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and therefore are not subject to state-level regulation.
The matter has led to several state regulators sending cease-and-desist orders to prediction platforms, including Robinhood, Kalshi, and others.
The platforms scored a legal win earlier this year when Kalshi was granted a temporary restraining order against the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, which had issued a cease-and-desist. The ruling meant Kalshi was allowed to continue offering event contracts in New Jersey.
