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The chief executives of the two dominant brands in U.S. sports betting agreed Tuesday that the emerging prediction market space could present an opportunity, though they remained guarded in saying so.
During separate remarks, DraftKings CEO Jason Robins and Flutter Entertainment CEO Peter Jackson spoke about the prediction markets that have become one of the dominant topics in the gaming industry in recent months.
On a quarterly earnings call, Jackson said FanDuel-owner Flutter had noted the recent developments, and further elaborated that while an opportunity may be there for the company, the product may not be comparable to a sports-betting offering.
“I think it’s worth recognizing that the products themselves lack the richness of a true sportsbook offering,” Jackson said.
Jackson compared sports event contracts to FanDuel’s “Your Way” parlay and other offerings that FanDuel had centered around the Super Bowl. The company boasted a 43 percent sportsbook market share in the U.S. at the end of 2024 and has done so in large part on the back of its parlay products.
“It’s a very compelling and very broad parlay product, and we need to remember that the prediction products are very vanilla in comparison,” he said.
In a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Flutter also listed prediction markets as part of a risk factor when detailing the competitive landscape of their business.
"This new competition purports to be available nationwide and is currently being offered by a growing number of providers,” the company wrote.
“While we believe that we are well positioned to compete with new entrants to the betting and gaming market through our online betting and gaming offerings, the competitive dynamic is evolving and we cannot assure you that our results of operations will not be adversely impacted by the expansion of legalized online gaming and betting.”
DraftKings CEO Jason Robins was similarly guarded in his comments about the scope of the potential opportunity, although he did say the company saw it more on that side than as a threat to their existing business.
“I think it’s definitely more on the opportunity side, but we have to see how this plays out,” Robins said during a conversation at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom conference.
Robins said that the company was expecting a ruling from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in April and cited that as an important factor in what comes next.
“We’re watching it carefully and looking at what happens there, because if there is an opportunity that presents itself we want to make sure we’re prepared for it, but that’s a big moment that we’re all still waiting to see what happens on.”
The two companies did not file comments with the CFTC to participate in a roundtable discussion set to take place in the coming weeks on the prediction markets, though they are members of the American Gaming Association, which called the contracts “problematic”.
More regulatory clarity on the contracts could potentially give sports-betting operators a path into all 50 U.S. states, even states where sports betting is either not legally permitted, such as California and Texas, or where market leaders are shut out through a tribal gaming monopoly, like Florida.
