Robinhood Welcomes NFL and College Football to Its Sports Betting Menu

Prediction market platform Robinhood, in a partnership with Kalshi, has announced that the NFL and college football will be included in its sports event contracts.

Robinhood Kicks Off Football Betting

Robinhood Markets Inc., an American financial services company based in Menlo Park, California, announced earlier this week that it will be providing contracts on the NFL and college football this season through its partnership with Kalshi. The retail derivatives trading platform will be using its Robinhood app to facilitate transactions.

“Football is far and away the most popular sport in America,” said JB Mackenzie, VP & GM of futures and international at Robinhood. “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.”

How Event Contracts Work

Unlike mobile sportsbooks, event contracts allow trading of the contracts in real time as their value will ebb and flow based on the results of the game. Fellow traders can purchase these contracts as they would for traditional futures market trading in commodities like gold, silver, and pork bellies, to name a few.

According to Robinhood’s website, its news desk stated, “Unlike sports betting, where the firm sets a line, event contracts leverage the power and rigor of financial market structure and are offered in a marketplace where buyers and sellers interact to set the price. Customers can access the contracts in real-time and manage risk by adjusting–or exiting—their positions up to and throughout a game before a contract expires. “

Robinhood Sues Nevada and New Jersey Regulators

The advent of sports betting contracts has usurped the authority of state gaming regulators that license sportsbooks, claiming those providers are governed by a federal regulator, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and can transact sports betting contracts in all 50 US states, including those that have not yet launched mobile sports betting.

Regulatory Pushback

This has attracted the ire of regulators, tribal communities, and sportsbooks, prompting regulators from Nevada and New Jersey to issue cease-and-desist orders to Kalshi, one of the industry’s leaders in the futures trading market. However, early legal battles were won by Kalshi, and Robinhood has now filed a similar action.

“Given the Board’s refusal to acknowledge what this Court has already held – that its threatened enforcement of state law is likely preempted by federal law – Robinhood had no choice but to file this lawsuit to protect its customers and its business. Robinhood respectfully requests that this Court enjoin Defendants from enforcing preempted Nevada law against Robinhood for its facilitation of transactions involving sports-related event contracts,” the Nevada complaint reads, with similar language in the NJ complaint.

Maryland Court Ruling

Yet, a Maryland state judge disagreed with the previous federal courts, and the primary reason for giving Kalshi a legal setback stemmed from the following ruling.

The court stated Kalshi needed to “establish that Congress clearly and manifestly intended to strip states of their authority to regulate gambling if the company offering such wagering opportunities has been approved to sponsor a designated contracts market for commodities trading.”

Although Maryland preliminarily found against Kalshi, it continues to offer contracts nationwide, and Robinhood will likely do the same until its pending litigation against Nevada and New Jersey regulators is resolved.