The U.S. sports betting world moves quickly and unpredictably in 2025. In order to properly take stock of it all, we offer InGame’s “EndGame,” an end-of-week compilation of the top storylines, some overlooked items, and all the other news bits from this past week that we found interesting.
Robinhood exploring non-US prediction markets?
Robinhood is exploring plans to offer prediction markets outside the U.S., according to a report.
According to Bloomberg, the stock trading giant has been in contact with regulators in other countries, including the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority, about offering prediction markets in their jurisdictions.
Robinhood currently offers access to event contracts made by Kalshi. However, the prediction market is U.S.-only at the moment. Either Kalshi would have to expand outside the country, Robinhood would have to find a new international partner such as Polymarket, or the stock trading app would have to start creating its own event contracts instead of relying on a partner.
A Kalshi spokesperson told InGame that Kalshi had not been aware of Robinhood’s international plans until the Bloomberg story was published.
The report came just a day after Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said the business processed more than $2 billion worth of event contracts in the third quarter of the year. That would give his business more than $20 million in fees – with few associated expenses – and mean Robinhood provided about half of Kalshi’s volume during the quarter.
GA lawmakers continue wagering research
Georgia’s House Study Committee on Tuesday heard from experts from other states and several groups opposed to legal sports betting as it continues to gather information and ultimately make a recommendation to the state legislature about how or if the state should legalize. Former Kentucky State Sen. Damon Thayer made a pitch for the state to legalize horse racing while West Virginia University professor of economics Brad R. Humphreys told the committee that Georgians are leaving the state to bet, WSAV reported.
Georgia is one of 10 U.S. states that do not offer any form of legal sports betting. Three of its four border states offer digital wagering. But in a block of southern states including Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, gambling expansions have been tough sells, in large part due to anti-gambling groups. Tuesday, Moms Against Gambling founder Jeanne Seaver told the committee, “Gambling is harmful but sports betting is the most dangerous to our kids, and we see the least amount of revenue in our state. Gambling expansion will forever change Georgia and it’s something we can’t go back on it. “
Jill R. Dorson
Poll: 43% of U.S. adults call betting bad for society
Public opinion of sports betting appears to be deteriorating, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center.
In a survey of 9,916 U.S. adults, 43% said the fact that sports betting is now legal in much of the country is “a bad thing for society, “compared to 34% in 2022. Only 7% said it was “a good thing for society.”
The survey also found that 22% of adults bet on sports in the past year, compared to 19% in 2022, with 10% of adults placing bets online. Among those who did bet on sports, 34% said widespread legalization was bad for society.
Lexis-Nexis to run multi-state self-exclusion list
The Responsible Online Gaming Association (ROGA) on Tuesday announced that it has selected Lexis-Nexis to develop and operate a multi-operator self-exclusion list. Comprised of eight of the largest digital gambling operators in the U.S., ROGA did not reveal when the list would become operational, but it will be the first in which operators share information. Through a Lexis-Nexis clearinghouse, information about consumers who self-exclude with one member platform will be shared across the organization, streamlining the process for consumers and operators.
ROGA is comprised of Bally’s Corporation (BallyBet), BetMGM, bet365, DraftKings, Fanatics Betting and Gaming, FanDuel, Hard Rock Digital, and PENN Entertainment (ESPN Bet).
Jill R. Dorson
Kalshi, Polymarket approach Novig on buyout
Sweepstakes betting exchange Novig has had takeover interest from prediction market giants Kalshi and Polymarket, according to a report.
Front Office Sports reported late last week that both had approached Novig, which operates an exchange under a sweepstakes model at the moment.
The report added that Novig is not “actively up for sale.” Novig raised $18 million in August. At the time, CEO Jacob Fortinsky told InGame that the business planned to pursue CFTC registration. He added that being CFTC-approved and operating under the sweepstakes model would not necessarily be “mutually exclusive,” though he didn’t offer more detail on how the two would work together.
Here’s where to find all things gambling
The iDevelopment Economic Association (iDEA) on Tuesday launched “the definitive destination for all things gambling,” it announced. The platform includes a library of studies and economic analyses, a state-by-state map showing where different kinds of gaming are legal, responsible gaming tools, and a news and policy section.
The site also includes iDEA’s model iGaming legislation, designed for lawmakers to use as a guide in states considering legalizing online casino. iDEA is a trade organization for legal online gambling. Among its members are online gambling operators, payment processors, affiliates, gaming media companies, and lawyers representing the gaming industry.
Jill R. Dorson
Polymarket CEO on Time’s ‘rising stars’ list
Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan was named in Time magazine’s Time100 list of “The World’s Most Influential Rising Stars.”
Coplan was named as one of 24 figures in the “Leaders” category, alongside White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego.
“While some critics cite the risks of gambling, proponents argue that prediction markets can be bellwethers – as in 2024, when [President] Trump’s win was tipped on the platform,” Time’s piece on Coplan said.
Perennial underdogs partner with Underdog
Underdog on Monday announced a multi-year partnership with the Kansas City Royals for sports betting market access in Missouri.
Underdog, which also fields a daily fantasy sports site and prediction market access, has not yet been approved by the Missouri Gaming Commission to offer bets when the market launches on or around Dec. 1.
Underdog is licensed to offer sports bets only in North Carolina.
The state handed untethered sports betting licenses to DraftKings and Circa, with 19 more licenses tethered to either sports teams or casinos.
Brant James
Check this out, Part One
InGame covered some of the most interesting parts of Terry Duffy’s and Tarek Mansour’s back-to-back interviews on Bloomberg‘s Odd Lots podcast this week, but it’s worth giving both episodes — as well as the interview with commodity market-making legend Don Wilson, who touches briefly on sports event contracts — a listen in full.
Check this out, Part Two
While most California tribes have ardently opposed sweepstakes gaming in the state, a few have come out in support.
One of those tribes is the Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation, whose chair Charlie Wright called the passage of Assembly Bill 831 — which would ban online sweepstakes gaming — “a devastating blow” in an op-ed in Cal Matters Tuesday. He argues that a sweepstakes ban may favor wealthy tribes but not those like his own that don’t offer casino gaming.
“When wealthy tribes argue for laws like AB 831, they sometimes invoke ‘tribal struggles’ — as if all tribes share the same reality,” he writes. Many tribes resolved those challenges years ago, while rural and small-market tribes continue to face them every day, he noted.
“We do not begrudge their success. But it’s unfair and hypocritical for these well-off tribes to now argue that our partnerships with social gaming companies threaten sovereignty. ”
Odds and ends
- The National Council on Problem Gambling will operate the National Problem Gambling Helpline using the former number (1-800-522-4700) after a court denied an emergency stay that would have allowed it to keep using the 1-800-GAMBLER hotline, the council said via press release Monday.
- Former Disney and Warner Music executive Bryan Castellani has joined betting data giant Genius Sports as its new chief financial officer, the company announced Wednesday.
- After dramatic share price falls on Tuesday and Wednesday — before a bit of recovery Friday — DraftKings and Flutter shares are now almost entirely flat for the year. Maybe everything that has happened in 2025 was priced in all along?
ICYMI on InGame
Ernest Stevens Led With His Heart
FanDuel-CME Prediction Platform To Offer Hourly Version Of Day Trading
ForecastEx Latest Prediction Market To Self-Certify Sports Markets, Prop Bets
Prediction Markets Just Got Parlays, Regulators, And Vindication
CFTC: We Haven’t Decided Whether Sports Event Contracts Are Prohibited
NFL Week 5: Are We Feeling Ambulatory?
NY State Senator Files Bill That Would Ban Operators From Limiting Bettors
Trump Administration Pulls Quintenz From CFTC Chair Consideration
Sports Event Contracts Largely Ignored As Kalshi and Polymarket CEOs Speak At SEC-CFTC Roundtable
Sleeper Sues CFTC In Federal Court, Alleging ‘Unauthorized Interference’ In NFA Application
