Robinhood routes World Cup event contracts to CFTC-licensed Rothera
Robinhood will route World Cup event contracts through Rothera, a CFTC-regulated exchange the brokerage co-owns. The shift lets Robinhood offer lower-fee prediction-market products than competitors do. Rothera launched its CFTC-regulated platform in under five months using Adaptive's Aeron Exchange Accelerator technology, going live in 18 minutes. Previously, Robinhood's event-contract hub listed, matched, and settled every trade on Kalshi's exchange, with Robinhood acting as a front-end distribution layer.
Robinhood's Rothera routing cuts Kalshi out of a high-volume sports cycle for the first time. The retail brokerage previously sent every event-contract trade to Kalshi's exchange. World Cup betting drove billions in volume on rival platforms, so even a slice of that flow represents meaningful lost fee share for Kalshi. Rothera's lower-fee positioning squeezes partner exchanges that charge more for clearance and settlement.
Robinhood has already pushed 16% of event-contract volume through Rothera, and Bernstein's $160 price target assumes prediction markets surpass crypto revenue by 2028. That investor pressure speeds the shift from partner rails to owned infrastructure. Kalshi and ForecastEx must lock in alternate distribution before Rothera scales, or risk becoming background plumbing for Robinhood's vertical-integration story.
Robinhood's Rothera routing for World Cup contracts advances its vertical-integration push into prediction markets, a strategy now shared with DraftKings and Underdog as major platforms build or acquire dedicated exchange infrastructure.