A pair of recent approvals from the National Futures Association (NFA) has created some new pathways within the rapidly evolving prediction market landscape. Fanatics has received approval from the NFA to operate as a futures commission merchant (FCM), a regulatory step up that gives the operator the ability to hold customer funds directly. Separately, Splash Market LLC, the NFA entity associated with Splash Sports, received approval as an introducing broker on March 13.
Both moves were first noted by industry monitor PredictionMarketPulse.
Morton St Trading Investments LLC, the Fanatics vehicle behind the application, was listed as NFA-approved and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-registered on March 18, under the doing-business-as name Fanatics Markets FCM. The entity originally applied in August 2025. Fanatics Markets CEO William Sexton and CFO Jay Shah are listed among the principals, along with Fanatics Holdings Inc. and vocal Fanatics founder and CEO Michael Rubin as an indirect owner.
Fanatics entered the prediction markets space last year by acquiring a stake in Paragon Global Markets, an existing NFA-registered introducing broker. FCM status is a higher designation that carries stricter capital and compliance requirements and allows the company to accept and hold customer margin rather than routing through another firm.
As for Splash Sports’ approval, an introducing broker is basically an intermediary that solicits or accepts customer orders but does not hold funds itself. (This is how Robinhood has listed Kalshi markets.)
Separate from any prediction markets involvement, Splash Sports operates a platform for real-money pools and contests.
Correction: An earlier version of this story erroneously misidentified Splash as having sued the CFTC over a delayed application; that company was Sleeper.
