Robinhood plows ahead with Sports Betting, adding Event Contracts to its app
US neobroker Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD) has announced that its Robinhood Derivatives, LLC (RHD) unit has added a “prediction markets” hub directly within the Robinhood App, giving customers the opportunity to trade on the outcomes of some of the world’s biggest events.
At launch, the hub will allow customers to trade contracts for what the upper bound of the target fed funds rate will be in May, as well as the upcoming men’s and women’s “March Madness” College Basketball Tournaments.
Robinhood expects the College Basketball Tournament and target fed fund rate event contracts to be tradeable daily from 8:00am ET until 3:00am ET.
The move comes several weeks after Robinhood attempted to launch an NFL Super Bowl event contract – effectively betting on the outcome of the game – but withdrew following pressure from derivatives market regulator CFTC. Robinhood did have a successful event contract allowed for betting on November’s US Presidential election.
Robinhood’s entry into what amounts to Sports Betting puts it in direct competition with established sportsbooks like DraftKings and FanDuel, which are heavily regulated, licensed, and well-funded – and directly opposed to companies trying to take their market share.
JB Mackenzie, VP & GM of Futures and International at Robinhood said,
“We believe in the power of prediction markets and think they play an important role at the intersection of news, economics, politics, sports, and culture. We’re excited to offer our customers a new way to participate in prediction markets and look forward to doing so in compliance with existing regulations.”
Robinhood said that building a standalone prediction markets hub allows the company to better serve its customers as they look to engage with events that align with their interests. Prediction markets operate within a regulated framework and leverage the power and rigor of financial market structure to facilitate greater liquidity, transparency, and price discovery.
Robinhood added that it is committed to enabling anyone, anywhere, to trade, invest or earn on the financial assets that are available to institutions and that retail customers want. You can read Robinhood’s recent policy paper on prediction markets (pdf file) for more information on its position and support for this emerging asset class.
The prediction markets hub–and corresponding contracts–will initially be available across the US through KalshiEX LLC, a CFTC regulated exchange. Robinhood said it has been in close contact with the CFTC over the past several weeks, and looks forward to continuing to work with them to promote innovation in the futures, derivatives and crypto markets.
These contracts will start rolling out today and will be available to all eligible Robinhood customers in the coming days. To be eligible, customers must apply and be approved for a Robinhood Derivatives account (or already have an existing Robinhood Derivatives account).