Robinhood is stepping firmly back into sports event prediction markets with an assist from Kalshi, beginning with March Madness.
The fintech firm announced on Monday that it is launching a prediction markets hub directly within the Robinhood app. Customers across the U.S. will be able to trade on a range of events contracts supplied by Kalshi. At launch, the sports contracts are available for the upcoming men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments.
Fortune reported that customers who use the new prediction markets hub will pay a fee of two cents per contract, with half going to Kalshi and half to Robinhood.
“As we demonstrated during the election, there’s nothing more exciting than participating in prediction markets during unpredictable events,” said Kalshi Founder and CEO Tarek Mansour in a statement provided to SBC Americas. “March Madness is famous for its volatility; we’re thrilled to add the excitement of prediction markets to this year’s games and couldn’t ask for a better partner in Robinhood to bring our vision to every American.”
“We believe in the power of prediction markets and think they play an important role at the intersection of news, economics, politics, sports, and culture,” said Robinhood VP & GM of Futures and International, JB Mackenzie in Robinhood’s announcement. “We’re excited to offer our customers a new way to participate in prediction markets and look forward to doing so in compliance with existing regulations.”
Robinhood and Kalshi re-fire partnership
Robinhood and Kalshi were set to work together on Super Bowl markets before the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) formally requested Robinhood to stop offering its sports event contracts. Robinhood’s event contracts for that game were available to customers for less than 48 hours.
At that time, Robinhood said it would continue to continue to collaborate with the CFTC and intended to “roll out a more comprehensive event contracts platform later this year.”
In its new statement unveiling that platform on Monday, the company said it has been “in close contact with the CFTC over the past several weeks” and looks forward to continuing to work with the commission “to promote innovation in the futures, derivatives and crypto markets.”
Kalshi offering March Madness single-game contracts
Last week, Kalshi offered its own events contracts that resembled single-game sports wagers on the NCAA conference tournaments. The round-by-round contracts asked users which of the two teams competing in a game would advance to the next round, ostensibly offering markets that resemble “to win” singles.
A spokesperson confirmed to SBC Americas that it is also offering round-by-round markets for March Madness. Users can scroll through the markets for each round and see each team’s odds.
In the background, the CFTC continues to review the legality of events contracts. It is slated to hold a roundtable on the topic in the near future.
Kalshi gets more time to respond to Nevada C&D
Meanwhile, the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) announced on Friday that Kalshi’s request for a “limited period of additional time” to respond to the board’s cease-and-desist order had been granted.
The board issued the directive to the company on March 4 and set a 10-day deadline for the operator to shut down in the state. The NGCB has asserted that by offering sports event contracts, Kalshi is violating numerous Nevada statutes and gaming regulations.
Kalshi did not comment on the C&D deadline extension when asked by SBC Americas.
