Retail brokerage Robinhood has announced that it is adding professional and college football prediction markets to its app through its partnership with CFTC-approved prediction market platform Kalshi.
Robinhood traders will be able to trade on the outcomes of “most popular” NFL and NCAA football games, including “all regular season pro matchups, and all college Power 4 schools and independents,” according to the announcement posted by the Robinhood newsroom.
JB Mackenzie, VP & GM of Futures and International at Robinhood, said the move was a logical next step for the app’s prediction market offerings.
“Football is far and away the most popular sport in America,” he said. “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.”
Football markets for first two weeks of season to be available soon
Robinhood says that the football prediction markets are rolling out now and will be available to all eligible traders in the next few days. To be eligible, Robinhood customers must apply for and be approved (or already be approved) for a Robinhood derivatives account.
At launch, Robinhood will offer markets for the first two weeks of the NFL and college football seasons and will add weekly matchup markets as the seasons progress. Robinhood expects the football markets to be available for trading every day between 8 a.m. ET and 3 a.m. ET.
Robinhood currently offers select cultural, economic and sports markets
Robinhood first launched prediction markets late last year and the company says that 2 billion contracts have been traded through its app since then. Through its partnership with Kalshi, Robinhood currently offers economic/financial prediction markets related to things like the value of various cryptocurrencies, gas prices, job numbers, and inflation.
Robinhood also has prediction markets for international soccer match outcomes and league winners and qualifiers. There are also MLB prediction markets for which team will win the National and American League championships, as well as the World Series. In its prediction market hub, Robinhood features culture markets, including who will headline the next Super Bowl halftime show.
“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,” the company said in the football markets launch announcement. “Ultimately, our goal is to enable anyone, anywhere, to trade, invest or hold any financial asset and conduct any financial transaction through Robinhood.”
Kalshi expanding NFL markets to include spreads, totals and props
Robinhood’s announcement comes the day after it was revealed that Kalshi is expanding its NFL prediction markets to include markets for points spreads, point totals and touchdown props. Robinhood appears to so far be sticking with single-game outcome markets for football, but could potentially add markets for playoffs and championships, as well the new NFL markets coming to Kalshi.
Robinhood’s expansion into football markets is poised to increase Kalshi’s trading volume and liquidity in those markets. The platforms’ football market expansions could threaten traditional sportsbooks’ market share, which has led some sports betting operators to explore potentially adding prediction markets at some point. Shares of DraftKings and Flutter Entertainment (which owns FanDuel) dipped slightly after the Robinhood news came out.
Kalshi has made brokerage partnerships a priority
Kalshi has made integrations with brokers like Robinhood a priority, which will increase its overall trading base. After a recent $185 million funding round and $2 million valuation for the company, Kalshi co-founder and CEO Tarek Mansour told the Wall Street Journal that some of the raise will go to establishing more brokerage partnerships. Mansour said around 20 brokers are “in the pipeline.”
Retail broker Webull expanded its offering of Kalshi economic markets last month, but has yet to add sports prediction markets.
