FanDuel, the leading U.S. online gaming company, and CME Group, the global derivatives marketplace, have announced a new prediction-markets platform set to debut in December. The launch marks the companies’ effort to open up access to event contracts for a broad range of topics — from sporting outcomes to economic indicators.
The new product, called FanDuel Predicts, will appear as a separate mobile application. Through it, users will be able to trade event contracts on outcomes across sports like baseball, basketball, football and hockey. For states where online sports betting has not been legalized, customers (outside tribal lands) will still be able to trade those sports-outcome contracts. In states that do legalize online sports betting later, FanDuel says it will stop offering sports event contracts.
Beyond sports, the platform will include contracts tied to global financial benchmarks: indices such as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100, commodities like oil, gas and gold, cryptocurrencies and economic indicators such as GDP and the Consumer Price Index.
FanDuel says it will bring its consumer protection practices to the new app. Users will have tools to manage their exposure, set spending and deposit limits, activate deposit alerts and self-exclude if desired. Educational resources will explain how prediction markets work and how to buy and sell event contracts.
The sign-up process mirrors that used by FanDuel for other products: users must provide date of birth, Social Security number, home address, banking information and a valid ID. Contracts can be traded at prices as low as $0.01 up to $0.99.
Amy Howe, CEO at FanDuel, emphasized the company’s focus on innovation and user experience. She noted that the collaboration with CME Group allows FanDuel to combine its mobile-gaming expertise with CME’s decades of market infrastructure and risk-management know-how.
Terry Duffy, Chairman & CEO of CME Group, said the new event-contract offerings—across benchmarks, economic measures and sports—will attract a new audience that is not currently active in traditional financial markets, and will reach millions of registered FanDuel users.
FanDuel Group is described as America’s premier mobile gaming company, with a portfolio that includes top-tier sportsbook, casino, horse-racing and fantasy-sports brands. It serves approximately 17 million customers and operates 25 retail locations across all 50 U.S. states.
CME Group is one of the world’s leading venues for futures, options, cash and over-the-counter (OTC) trading, offering a wide range of global benchmark products across asset classes including equities, interest rates, foreign exchange, cryptocurrencies, energy, agriculture and metals.
