Kalshi lost a significant court decision in Utah, Coinbase took a hit from a Michigan judge, Novig launched prediction markets nationwide and promptly sued New York, and Congress held yet another hearing on the topic.
Yes, it was just another quiet week. But what else happened in recent days that you might have missed? SBC Americas’ ‘Prediction Markets Weekly‘ has you covered.
New York state of mind
It was only one week ago that news broke that New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Kalshi on behalf of the state, seeking a total of $36bn recompense for the operator’s “illegal, unlicensed gambling operation.” The Empire State has been one of the most vociferous in disapproval, then opposition, and now offense against prediction markets, having also sued Coinbase and Gemini back in April.
In the meantime, New York sports teams continue to embrace the very products that the state is trying to shut down.
Polymarket made a splash this week by unveiling a new partnership with the New York Yankees that includes signage at Yankee Stadium, branding on Yankees’ local broadcasts, and exclusive fan experiences. Yankees SVP of Partnerships Michael Tusiani said the team “look[s] forward to elevating Polymarket’s brand awareness.”
Polymarket already benefits from a partnership with the NHL’s New York Rangers, as well as with both the NHL itself and Major League Baseball. Throw in the fact that Novig teamed up with the New York Mets, and sports teams in the biggest regulated sports betting market in the country are normalizing prediction markets that some state authorities say shouldn’t be allowed to operate.
Penny for the thoughts of James, Gov. Kathy Hochul, the New York State Gaming Commission, and every licensed sportsbook in the state.
Report: CFTC tells operators not to use American odds
In news that may interest the people who believe sports event contracts look an awful lot like sports bets, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) warned its registered prediction market operators against using American-style odds.
The CFTC cautioned prediction markets against employing marketing techniques that could be construed as “deceptive,” including labelling trades with odds like -110 or +100. It directed its registrants to use nominal or percentage terms instead.
“Displaying pricing information for derivatives products in bookmaker-style odds is likely to mislead market participants about the nature of the transaction into which they are entering,” wrote the agency.
Some would argue that it also makes them look pretty indistinguishable from state-regulated sports bets. And some have.
In a House hearing in April, in which CFTC Chair Michael Selig was grilled by legislators, Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-New Mexico) held up a sign comparing prediction markets contracts on a Colorado Rockies vs. Houston Astros game to state-regulated sportsbook odds on the same game and asked Selig whether he could identify which was which.
Selig responded that he was not an expert. “And that’s the problem,” replied Vasquez, “because the average consumer also can’t tell.”
Senate punts CLARITY down the road
At a meeting of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs this week, tribal gaming leaders and Ohio’s Solicitor General echoed the opinions of the American Gaming Association and the Indian Gaming Association that amendments to the CLARITY Act could serve as a vehicle for outlawing sports- and casino-related event contracts.
If they want that to happen, they’ll have to wait.
Outlets including Politico reported on Thursday that the Senate will not vote on the cryptocurrency bill until after August recess. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the bill will be “queued up first thing” when they reconvene in September. The bill requires bipartisan support to pass, but it has faced opposition from Democrats. Thune said members of that party “insisted” that it must not get a vote before recess.
Politico added that Democrats are demanding changes “to overhaul the commodities portion of the measure that is overseen by the Senate Agriculture Committee.”
DraftKings, FanDuel strike different tones
DraftKings and FanDuel owner Flutter both reported their Q2 earnings this week, the latter doing so amid the unexpected news of Peter Jackson’s impending departure as CEO. Prediction markets were inevitably a big focus of both companies’ earnings calls, but the vibes weren’t exactly similar.
Flutter’s tone on Wednesday was relatively downcast, with the company acknowledging in its earnings presentation that “operational progress in H1 has been slower than planned” for FanDuel Predicts. Flutter reported $6m in prediction markets revenue in the quarter and estimated that it will spend more than $200m on that side of the product this year. Flutter also revealed that it is pulling its sports contracts off its joint venture partner CME Group and moving them to Crypto.com.
Then came DraftKings CEO Jason Robins on Friday, who could not have sounded more eager to talk about DraftKings Predictions.
“Predictions is already growing faster than we anticipated,” enthused Robins, adding that more than 600,000 customers engaged with the product in the first six months of 2026, which he said “far surpassed our expectations.” He added that between April and July, annualized total trading volume across the Predictions product almost quintupled from $2.3bn to $11bn, aided by parlay-style Combos prediction markets.
Unlike Flutter, which slashed its projection for FY 2026 U.S. adjusted EBITDA by 22%, DraftKings did not lower its outlook for the full year.
ProphetX scores EPICK win
ProphetX is one of the newer entrants into the prediction markets field, and it continues to think outside the box.
In late July, it partnered with skill-based gaming platform Players’ Lounge, the primary focus of which is allowing users to compete for real money on popular games like Call of Duty, Fortnite, NBA 2K, and Madden NFL. Now, Players’ Lounge offers ProphetX’s sports event contracts in some parts of the U.S.
Then, this week, ProphetX teamed up with peer-to-peer daily fantasy sports platform EPICK Fantasy to launch a similar integration of major-league sports contracts. ProphetX Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer Jake Benzaquen called the collaboration “a natural next step” for both companies, citing a core belief that users should compete against each other, not against the house. EPICK Fantasy CEO Matt Downs added that his company’s users “already think like traders,” making offering prediction markets a logical step.
Former sweepstakes gaming site ProphetX rebranded as a sports-focused prediction market platform last November and was approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in June.
