Parlays have been extremely important to DraftKings and its success in the sports betting vertical. The company is attempting to imitate the same success on its prediction market platform.
DraftKings self-certified a “combos” contract with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, positioning it to start processing parlay volume on its own in-house exchange, DKeX. The current structure for combos sends users to Crypto.com.
The filing lands right after CEO Jason Robins told investors last week that DraftKings plans to shift the “vast majority” of its sports volume onto its own exchange this fall. With parlays resulting success on the sportsbook, Robins is expecting the same for prediction markets.
Combos already nearly 20% of volume
Combos contracts operate similarly to a parlay on DraftKings in regulated sports betting markets. On the DKeX platform, the combos would be titled, “Will all [outcomes] occur?” according to the filing.
The current process has users running through Crypto.com to complete combo contracts. As volume significantly grew in Q2, Robins sees this as a golden opportunity to drive even more through its own platform.
“More than half of our predictions customers have engaged with combos,” Robins said on the call. “Combos are already approaching 20% of predictions consumer volume.”
Robins noted that trading volume grew to $11 billion from $2.3 billion during the second quarter.
“This is only the beginning,” Robins added. “We expect to build on this momentum as we improve our offering.”
DraftKings shifting volume in-house
Robins said that DraftKings intends to move most of its sports volume onto its own systems soon.
“We’re certainly planning to shift the volume that we have, in sports at least, to our platform in the coming months,” he said, adding that the company expects to route “the vast majority” of its major sports content, starting with college football and the NFL, onto DKeX this fall.
Robins pointed to DraftKings’ sportsbook business as the template for that shift. The company now prices and trades roughly 95% of its sportsbook content in-house, he said, though it took years to get there after DraftKings first launched on the third-party platform Kambi.
DraftKings isn’t alone in trying to bring parlay volume onto its own infrastructure. Underdog began offering parlays on its in-house exchange beyond small testing volume on Aug. 5, logging $1.2 million in volume on Aug. 7.
Kalshi has also seen its own combos volume climb steadily since launching the product last September, reaching roughly 20% of weekly sports trading volume by mid-March, according to LSR‘s own tracking.
