Robinhood routes World Cup contracts to Rothera while keeping some markets on Kalshi
Robinhood is routing its World Cup event contracts to Rothera, the joint venture derivatives exchange and clearinghouse it launched in 2026, while keeping player and combo markets on partner Kalshi. The shift, disclosed June 4, comes after Robinhood CFO Shiv Verma said in a May 28 interview that most prediction-market trading volume would migrate to the company's own exchange. Robinhood reported over 16 billion event contracts traded year-to-date in 2026, up sharply from 12 billion in all of 2025, with event-contract users growing from 1 million to 1.5 million in recent months. Rothera had filed soccer event contracts in late May positioning for World Cup listings as early as June 1. The company holds a 7 percent stake in Kalshi.
Rothera's capture of World Cup liquidity directly threatens Kalshi's trading volume at the precise moment Robinhood's event-contract business is scaling fastest. Any sustained migration will force Kalshi to rebuild its retail flow pipeline outside Robinhood just as sports event contracts face mounting tribal and regulatory challenges.