Robinhood Unveils Parlays, Player Props & AI Trading Assistant
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev took the stage in a live-streamed keynote event on Tuesday evening to share the company’s new and planned prediction market developments and latest AI innovations. Along with presenting new and planned features, Tenev laid out a case for the value of prediction markets and reiterated his belief that the industry is just getting started.
“…I believe we are at the very beginning of a prediction markets super cycle and as it progresses, we should expect to see adoption and volume continuing to grow, potentially into the trillions of contracts traded each year.”
Tenev shared with the Skywalker Ranch audience that the platform has seen over 11 million contracts traded by more than one million customers since launching the offering in March. That means that more than 7 million contracts have been traded since late September, when Tenev announced on X that they crossed 4 million contracts.
The major prediction market developments unveiled on Tuesday were in the sports category, the biggest volume driver. Robinhood is rolling out:
- Pre-set combos AKA ready-made parlays combining game winner and point total
- Player performance markets AKA individual player props
While Robinhood has been offering prediction markets from Kalshi since March as a Futures Commission Merchant, the company announced in November plans to branch off on its own. Robinhood partnered with global market-maker Susquehanna International Group to acquire a majority stake in MIAX Derivatives Exchange, giving the company access to a full stack of CFTC licenses needed to run a standalone exchange, apart from Kalshi.
Robinhood rolling out pre-set parlays and player props on single games
As the most popular prediction market trading category, Tenev mentioned that the team has been “cooking especially hard on sports.”
Robinhood employees presented an enhanced sports trading hub, including the following upgrades:
- Enhanced sports hub and game page (with improved navigation)
- Addition of limit orders
- Game notifications (when game start, when games are close)
- New daily sports newsletter called Scoreboard
They also unveiled the adding of player performance markets (props) and combos (parlays), starting with NFL. Robinhood traders can now buy event contracts on pre-set combos that include game winner + over/under point totals (the total points scored in the game). The player prop markets include contracts for TDs, passing yards, receiving yards, and rushing yards.
Next phase of sports: Custom combos across games and categories
The presenters noted that the combo feature will start with single games but traders will eventually be able to combine contracts across games and across categories. They also shared that custom combos (which Kalshi already offers) on single games will be coming in January, ahead of the NFL playoffs. One Robinhood employee praised the combo feature, which will allow you to “turn your unique read of the game into a trade.”
“Imagine mixing your predictions in sports, culture, politics, really any category, into one trade,” said the presenter. “This is really just the beginning of prediction markets here at Robinhood and we’re incredibly excited for what’s ahead.”
Tenev doubled down on the sports play, inserting a dig against traditional sportsbooks.
“For all you sports fans, you no longer need all these pesky sports apps,” he said. “You can do everything in your financial super app of choice.”
Robinhood planning AI integration and countless parlays
While they’re starting with an emphasis on sports and already offer thousands of prediction markets, Tenev noted that he expects two developments to happen quickly:
- “The number and variety of markets on the platform to increase at a rapid rate”
- “You’ll be able to combine any of them into a custom trade that can be priced for you in real time. What all this means is that you’ll be able to trade and hedge on pretty much anything.”
Which brings us to the planned roll out (in the next few months) of Robinhood Cortex, a personal AI trading assistant that can provide real-time analysis of traders’ portfolios, help with trading ideas, and even prepare trades and limit orders. The new tool, which you can engage with via verbal chat, will draw on real-time market data, analyst reports and research to provide objective insights into market dynamics.
After all, when you can trade real money on countless combos of future event outcomes, you will probably need an AI assistant to help you make sense of it all.