The latest prediction market exchange to apply for operational approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is RSBIX, a company founded in 2018 by a lawyer and lobbyist with ties to President Donald Trump, as well as the online gaming industry and other tech sectors.
According to the RSBIX website, the company is looking to become “the most trusted sports event trading platform in the United States.” RSBIX founder and CEO Jeff Ifrah is also the founder of the law firm Ifrah Law. Ifrah, a former federal prosecutor, also co-founded iDevelopment and Economic Association (iDEA), an influential lobbying organization that advocates for legislation and regulations favorable to the online gaming and sports betting industry.
Ifrah confirmed to Prediction News that RSBIX will be powered by Matchbook, a U.K. peer-to-peer sports betting exchange that features a large number of sports event outcome markets. “RSBIX obtained a perpetual license to the MB product,” Ifrah said.
RSBIX, which stands for “Regulated Sports Book Index Exchange,” has filed for Designated Contract Market status from the CFTC, which, if approved, would allow the company to self-certify and offer prediction markets in all 50 states. The application and filings were recently listed in the CFTC’s DCM portal dated Sept. 16, with the status shown as “Pending.”
“The approved product will conform to CFTC DCM requirements,” Ifrah confirmed to Prediction News. “We are hoping to have approvals and a launch date in six months time.”
RSBIX faced previous CFTC challenge to NFL prediction markets
RSBIX was previously involved in a CFTC challenge to its plans to launch NFL futures contracts through the CFTC-approved platform ErisX, which was acquired by Cboe Digital Holdings, Inc. in 2022 and re-named Cboe Digital Exchange.
In 2020, the CFTC announced a review of three RSBIX NFL markets that were self-certified by ErisX. According to a Medium post by ErisX, the NFL markets were akin to moneyline, point spread and point total bets at traditional sportsbooks. The self-certified proposals stated that the markets would not be available to all retail traders, but solely licensed sportsbooks, sports vendors, stadium owners, or designated market makers, who could use the markets as hedging opportunities related to potential sports betting risks.
The CFTC review was to examine whether the NFL contracts were contrary to public interest and in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act, which gave the CFTC the power to prohibit contracts that involve “gaming.”
ErisX withdrew the RSBIX NFL market proposals in early 2021 before the CFTC voted on its decision. Statements released by a pair of commissioners, including acting chair Dan Berkovitz, indicated that the CFTC would have voted in favor of prohibiting RSBIX’s NFL markets.
Trump nominee for CFTC chair previously sided with RSBIX
Then-CFTC-commissioner Brian Quintenz issued an extensive statement of dissent on the commission’s planned action against the NFL markets. Quintenz said he would have voted in favor of the markets “due to significant concerns around the statute’s constitutionality, the regulation’s validity, and the order’s arbitrariness.”
Quintenz, who currently sits on the board of leading U.S. prediction market platform Kalshi, is President Trump’s pick to serve as the new head of the CFTC. His nomination has been stalled for months as he awaits Senate confirmation, though many expect Quintenz to ultimately be confirmed.
Quintenz’s position in the prediction market industry, his statements and actions when he was a CFTC commissioner, and his statements during an early confirmation hearing have indicated that he will have a friendlier and more permissive approach to prediction markets overall, including the allowance of sports markets. Since Trump regained power, the CFTC, under the oversight of current acting chair Caroline Pham, already appears to have a less restrictive approach to prediction markets than it did under Joe Biden’s administration.
In 2025, no self-certified sports event contracts have faced CFTC challenges and the Commission withdrew earlier actions against prediction platforms, including Polymarket, which has set up the worldwide prediction market platform for an imminent return to the U.S.
RSBIX founder has extensive ties to Trump, iGaming industry
That all combines to set up a friendly climate for RSBIX to launch sports prediction markets nationwide in partnership with the Matchbook sports betting exchange. But Quintenz isn’t the only influential apparent ally the company has.
Jim Trusty, a partner at Ifrah Law, has served as a personal lawyer for President Trump, including representing Trump in a case related to the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago in 2023. Trusty ultimately quit Trump’s legal team, but Ifrah Law still reportedly received $2 million in legal fees for their representation, which were paid by a Trump Super PAC.
Ifrah Law’s offices are located on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C., less than a half of a mile from The White House. In RSBIX’s CFTC filings, its address is listed as the same as Ifrah Law’s.
More recently, Ifrah and Trusty created NexusOne Consulting, which, according to Politico, is a lobbying group for crypto, artificial intelligence and social media regulation, all sectors that are in the prediction market industry’s orbit.
Ifrah’s experience indicates likely CFTC approval
Given Ifrah’s wide-ranging connections, experience and influence, if there were a prediction market for RSBIX’s CFTC approval, it would probably be wise to buy “Yes” shares.
The only obstacle for some sort of RSBIX/Matchbook launch could be the ongoing legal cases that challenge a CFTC-approved prediction platform’s right to offer sports markets in certain states that seek to prohibit them.
