The race for established sportsbook operators to get involved in the rapidly growing events-based contracts space is heating up.
Just a week after Flutter Entertainment CEO Peter Jackson said it was exploring opportunities in the space, his company’s main US-focused brand FanDuel has struck a deal with CME Group.
agreement initially won’t cover any sports-related events
This agreement initially won’t cover any sports-related events. Instead, users will trade contracts on economic-related things like the S&P 500, cryptocurrency inflation indexes, and oil prices.
Chicago-based CME Group owns four CFTC-licensed exchanges and FanDuel will operate its new product under the supervision of the same regulator. Its gambling operations will still fall under the purview of state gaming regulators.
The planned launch date is later in 2025, with FanDuel giving no indication as to whether it’s creating a new app for the prediction market trading offering. The two parties also didn’t disclose any financial aspects of the deal.
This deal marks FanDuel’s first departure from the world of sports betting, casino games, and daily fantasy sports. Commenting on the arrangement, FanDuel CEO Amy Howe claimed there’s “potentially a wide audience for trading event-based markets.”
