Flutter CEO Discusses the Possibility of Entering the US Prediction Market Sector

In Flutter’s Q1 earnings call, its CEO alluded to the sports events futures market platforms stealing business away from traditional sportsbooks. The Flutter chief believes his company is uniquely poised to enter the US prediction market and dominate.

Trading Platforms Win Early Legal Rounds

Despite blowback from state gaming regulators and industry trade organizations, prediction market platforms like Kalshi have made a splash entering the sports events futures market. These futures trading platforms have traditionally been used to buy commodities like gold, silver, or even pork bellies, but recently they have entered the world of trading contracts on sporting events, and not everyone is happy about it.

The state gaming regulators have each crafted their own rules and awarded licenses to only those mobile sportsbooks that have been thoroughly vetted to protect their citizens from nefarious betting sites and bad actors.

No State Oversight or Taxation

The states are also compensated via taxes on the sportsbooks’ revenues, but when it comes to futures trading platforms, they operate unfettered by gaming regulators and unencumbered by tax rates on revenues because they are governed by a federal agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Despite cease-and-desist letters from several US states, the federal courts have ruled in the trading platforms’ favor, and it is up to the CFTC to either allow the practice of offering contracts on sporting events to continue or put a stop to it.

Despite the agency’s initial objections that led to a legal faceoff last year, the CFTC has had a change in board members with the incoming Trump administration, and Donald Trump Jr. is now an advisor on Kalshi’s board, which is likely why the agency has turned a blind eye toward the issue and even canceled a roundtable discussion that was scheduled in April.

Flutter Looks Ahead

On a recent Q1 earnings call, Peter Jackson, CEO of Flutter, parent company of mobile sports betting powerhouse FanDuel, made several somewhat surprising remarks. It appears Jackson is subscribing to the old axiom that if you can’t beat them, join them.

Jackson said, “We are really excited about our revolutionary outcome-based pricing technology that allows us to price an offer and an almost infinite amount of outcomes across the most relevant and immersive betting markets.

“We are also closely monitoring developments around futures markets and the potential for direct and indirect opportunities for FanDuel to explore.”

Jackson also noted that his company is uniquely equipped to enter the US prediction futures market with scalable technologies already within the company’s ecosystem and an exchange already operating in Europe known as Betfair.

Expansion Strategy

Jackson commented, “We do operate the world’s largest sports betting exchange, so we know this place well. The Betfair exchange has, for many years, given us very good insights into how this kind of stuff can play out. It tells us you have to be thoughtful about how exciting the exchange product can be when you have a fully fledged sports betting product available to you. So, we’re very thoughtful about it.

“In states where sports betting is allowed, I’m not that confident that this will have a significant impact. But there are new markets that could become available; the political stuff is what people talk about, and other gamified markets as well.

“We’re interested in the potential opportunity, and we have brought some of our team who have some experience in building these products and services from the Betfair exchange to help us evaluate these opportunities.”