Formerly forced offshore, 2025 saw an influx of U.S.-accessible platforms take advantage of the fact that prediction markets, unlike sports betting and other gambling products, are now regulated at the federal level by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), not at the state level by gambling commissions. Firms like Polymarket, which acquired QCX, a designated contract market, and QC Clearing, a derivatives clearing organization; Robinhood, which acquired MIAX’s derivatives exchange; and DraftKings, which acquired Railbird Technologies and its wholly owned subsidiary, Railbird Exchange; have been stepping up their acquisitions of CFTC-licensed firms over the past year in order to enter the space in a regulated fashion. But the space’s rapid evolution has also sparked fierce competition, legal scrutiny, and strategic repositioning by some of the biggest players in finance and betting, each vying for position in what could become a new asset class bridging finance, entertainment and wagering.
Author: PYMNTS
Published at: 2025-12-23 22:16:53
Still want to read the full version? Full article
