Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin told CNBC today that the company will be launching prediction markets “in the next couple of weeks.” Rubin confirmed that the markets will be powered in partnership with Crypto.com.
The timeline would bring Fanatics’ new prediction offering in line to launch around the same time as FanDuel Predicts, Flutter’s new prediction exchange collaborations with the CME Group. In fact, Fanatics could potentially beat FanDuel to market and become the first major sportsbook operator to launch event contract trading. DraftKings is also planning to launch its own prediction market product in late 2025 or early 2026.
“We’re super excited,” Rubin told CNBC about the launch. “From our perspective, if there’s a business that is important to our customers, we want to be in there and do it better.”
Rubin thinks sportsbooks will win the prediction market space
Rubin said that he believes sportsbooks have a chance to beat the current titans, Kalshi and Polymarket, in the prediction market space. While he called Polymarket’s Shayne Coplan and Kalshi’s Tarek Mansour “studs” and said he was a fan of both, he believes sportsbooks have a greater advantage over them to succeed.
“So, I’ll say something that won’t be conventional thinking, I think the winners in this (prediction markets battle) are going to be the sportsbooks,” he said. “If you look at what Flutter and FanDuel has, and DraftKings and Fanatics, I think we have such strategic advantages, from the enormous customer bases we have to all the experience.”
Rubin said the launch will put Fanatics’ digital gaming in states that currently don’t have legalized sports betting.
“We’re only in 23 states (with Fanatics Sportsbook), so there are 27 states that we’re going to launch in that we think customers want this product, and we want to give it to the customers,” Rubin said.
Fanatics will adjust in accordance with regulatory, legal decisions
Sports event contracts at platforms like Kalshi and Crypto.com are currently facing legal challenges in certain states. Several states with legal sportsbooks that are regulated at the state level believe that sports prediction markets are illegal in their jurisdictions. The legal issues likely won’t be resolved until next year at the earliest.
Several state gaming regulators have also sent letters to current iGaming licenses telling them that their licenses could be at risk if they begin offering sports event contracts. When asked about the regulatory risks, Rubin said Fanatics is ready and willing to adjust their prediction market approach as needed.
“I can’t tell you what the regulatory environment is going to be,” he said. “What I can tell you is if the regulatory environment says that we can do this, we’re going to do it, and if it changes, we’ll change with it.”
“I would not have believed a year, a year and a half ago that all these fantasy players, prediction markets, sweepstakes casinos — I didn’t think any of these things would still be going,” Rubin added. “And I was wrong. So what do we do? We adapt, we build.”
Crypto.com has announced numerous prediction market partnerships
Fanatics partnering with Crypto.com is just the latest partnership recently announced by the crypto exchange. After announcing a similar deal with DFS heavyweight Underdog in September, Crypto.com has announced numerous other partnerships in recent weeks, including with Truth Social, pop culture news site Hollywood.com and the MyPrize sweepstakes casinos.
Crypto.com Derivatives North America (CDNA) is the crypto exchanges’ prediction trading subsidiary that has Designated Contract Market (DCM) status from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. That designation lets DCMs partner with outside platforms to facilitate prediction markets.
