Robinhood Launches Pro, College Football Prediction Markets

• Robinhood Derivatives today announced it has launched professional and college football prediction markets
• Customers are able to purchase contracts on the first two weeks of the professional and college football seasons
• This comes a day after Kalshi announced it will expand its football offerings

Robinhood Derivatives today announced it has launched professional and college football prediction markets for the first two weeks of each season for its customers.

The prediction market company is now allowing customers to trade on the outcomes of professional and college football games, including all regular season professional matchups and all college Power 4 schools and independents.

This expansion comes less than 24 hours after Kalshi also announced an expansion of its professional and college football markets, offering customers contracts on point totals and spreads for a number of matchups.

Event Contracts ‘Unlike Sports Betting’

According to the Robinhood announcement, its offerings differ from sports betting as event contracts are offered in a marketplace where “buyers and sellers interact to set the price.”

State gaming regulators would likely disagree with that assessment, as several states are currently fighting in court with prediction market companies to have a say in how these types of sports event contracts are regulated.

Companies such as Robinhood and Kalshi believe that state regulatory bodies do not have the right to intrude on the government’s “exclusive” authority to regulate prediction market, filing lawsuits in New Jersey, Nevada, and Maryland to defend its practices.

State regulators equate sports event contracts as sports betting and believe they should have a say in how they’re regulated, taxed, and licensed.

The prediction market companies believe their offerings are not required to comply with state laws, as they have been preempted by the Commodity Exchange Act.

“Football is far and away the most popular sport in America,” JB Mackenzie, VP and GM of Futures and International at Robinhood said. “Adding pro and college football to our prediction markets hub is a no-brainer for us as we aim to make Robinhood a one-stop shop for all your investing and trading needs.”

Currently, Robinhood is offering event contracts for the first two weeks of the professional and college football seasons, and will add weekly matchups as the season progresses.

More Expansion Into Sports Event Contracts

Robinhood’s announcement came on the same day Kalshi began officially offering football point total and spread contracts to customers.

The federally regulated prediction market is offering spread and point total event contracts to its customers after yesterday submitting three product certifications to the Commodity Future’s Trading Commission (CFTC).

The company also filed to offer certain player prop event contracts, but does not seem to be offering them to customers as of yet.