FanDuel will join the prediction markets business later this year, but it is not clear if that will include sports.
CME Group is partnering with FanDuel to “launch new products and expand access to financial markets for millions of FanDuel customers in the United States,” according to the release. A joint venture will facilitate access to the markets through FanDuel.
FanDuel does not mention sports predictions in the release:
“Expected to launch later this year, the products will include benchmarks such as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100, prices of oil and gas, gold, cryptocurrencies, and key economic indicators such as GDP and CPI, with further details of additional offerings to be determined in the coming months.”
FanDuel benefits from experience
Flutter, the parent company of FanDuel, was asked about entering the predictions business on its recent earnings call. CEO Peter Jackson noted the company already has a background in something similar.
“Look, with prediction markets, it’s clearly a fast-moving space,” Jackson said. “And for those of you on the call who are a bit less familiar with our International business, it’s worth remembering that we’ve got sort of two decades experience of operating the world’s largest betting exchange, the Betfair Exchange.
“We offer this product in lots of markets around the world, and it shares some similar characteristics of the event contracts, which will obviously be helpful to us as we consider the landscape and any developments. But as you say, we’re evaluating the various regulatory developments and assessing the potential opportunities this may present for FanDuel.
“Naturally, we’ve got a lot of important stakeholders that we need to consider, and so we’re watching this space very closely.”
Will DraftKings make a move soon?
Like Jackson, DraftKings CEO Jason Robins noted the pace of how sports predictions are shaking out.
“But I think you can assume that at this stage, we’re more in monitor mode in terms of active discussions like that,” Robins said on the company’s Q2 earnings call. “So a lot of what I think we need to see will come from watching how things unfold with others that are currently offering prediction markets. And I think we’ll kind of have to see how that goes and evaluate it. It’s all happening in very fast real time. So definitely a lot to think through.”
DraftKings has a pending application in for prediction markets and was reportedly in talks about buying Railbird, a recently approved predictions exchange.
