Betr buys NFA broker Ascent Capital Management to skip build and offer prediction markets this year
Betr, the daily fantasy sports operator co-owned by Joey Levy and Jake Paul, has acquired Ascent Capital Management (ACM), an NFA-registered introducing broker with CFTC registration. The deal, completed last week, gives Betr the regulatory status it previously lacked to offer event contracts without constructing its own exchange infrastructure. Betr plans to offer Polymarket's sports and other event contracts later this year within its single-wallet super app, which serves more than one million users. The company intends to list contracts across sports, politics, culture, and additional categories, positioning itself to compete against incumbents including Kalshi, Robinhood, Crypto.com, and Coinbase in the regulated U.S. prediction-markets sector.
Betr's ACM purchase puts it on a faster launch timeline than Sporttrade, whose DCM application remains stuck in CFTC queue. The deal gives Kalshi a new well-funded competitor with an existing million-user base before the NFL season starts.
Betr joins Moomoo and Sporttrade in the rush to build Kalshi alternatives, becoming the third platform this quarter to acquire or seek U.S. prediction-market infrastructure rather than build an exchange from scratch.