Sporttrade is shuttering its five U.S. sports betting operations next Monday, with a switch to prediction markets likely on the way.
Customers in New Jersey need to withdraw their funds by May 25 while those in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa and Virginia have until June 25 to empty their accounts. Checks will be issued for any accounts that do not cash out.
It would appear a move to prediction markets is the plan. Sporttrade submitted its designated contract market and its derivatives clearing organization applications in January.
“Stay tuned for what’s next!” reads the announcement on Sporttrade’s website and social media.
Sporttrade by the numbers
Arizona and Colorado are the only two of Sporttrade’s five states to release monthly betting stats by operators.
Sporttrade entered Iowa in May 2024, nearly five years after the market opened in August 2019. The sportsbook took $16.2 million in handle and $462,107 in gross revenue over a nearly two-year period.
Its Arizona sportsbook launched in September 2024, taking $20.4 million in handle and $290,581 in gross revenue through March.
‘Marketplace,’ not sportsbook
Sporttrade has always been something of a black sheep in the U.S. sports betting industry as it always called itself a betting exchange first. That is clear from the first moment their website loads:
“Sporttrade isn’t a sportsbook: it’s a marketplace,” reads its homepage. “Participants buy and sell listed contracts on a central limit order book. Fair, efficient, transparent.”
Founder Alex Kane has argued over the years that high license fees and certain other requirements skewed the industry toward only the biggest operators, leaving smaller books that could be differentiators out of some markets. Kane has also argued that most sports betting tax revenue will not be cannibalized by prediction markets since they appeal to different customers.
