The next step of FanDuel’s prediction market growth looks less dependent on CME. The sports betting giant has started market making, but not on the CME-built exchange used for FanDuel Predicts, and parent company Flutter’s CEO Peter Jackson said it might offer access to more exchanges within weeks.
The comments came Wednesday in Flutter’s earnings call for its first-quarter results, which came alongside an announcement confirming that FanDuel CEO Amy Howe is leaving the company.
Market making on ‘third party’ exchange
In the results, Flutter revealed that it is market-making on prediction markets — putting up prices for other users to take — but this was on a “third party platform” rather than on CME’s exchange, which FanDuel offers to its own customers. Rival sportsbooks DraftKings and Fanatics have also launched market makers.
“Market making is an exciting opportunity and I think it’s a great way that we can showcase the quality of our pricing opportunities,” Jackson said. “We’re going to be market making on as many platforms as we can.”
When asked if Flutter would also make markets on FanDuel Predicts, Jackson said, “There are some interesting possibilities around that that we are considering.”
Jackson said that the initial moves in April were only a “trial,” and focused on parlays, but that the business was already making money from it.
“I’m excited about it,” he said. “It’s great. We’re making money today from offering this capability, particularly offering combos. It’s small scale at the moment.
“We will launch our own platform in the coming months. The only part going into the guidance at the moment is the investment, we’ll see how it’s going and then we can talk about the revenues we’re generating.”
FCM application
Last month, FanDuel submitted a filing with the National Futures Association for a new registration as a futures commission merchant (FCM), which can partner with exchanges to offer their contracts. FanDuel Predicts is already a registered FCM, but 51% of that business is owned by CME. The new application therefore may be a step toward offering contracts from other exchanges.
Jackson said Flutter was hoping to have new partners available in time for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which starts June 11.
“We do have a right to connect up to other venues, it’s something that we’re focused on,” Jackson said. “The timing of it is tight but we’ll see if we can get it in time for the World Cup.”
He added that the FCM filing would provide the business with more “optionality.”
“We want to make sure that we can adapt and do what we need to do to win. We want to make sure we have the right range of products available,” Jackson said.
In his prepared remarks at the start of the earnings call, Jackson said that “the fast moving and complex regulatory environment means that product delivery timescales have at times been challenging.“ He expanded on that concept later in the call.
“I think we made some good progress in the first quarter,“ he said. “I think we are working hard to improve the breadth of the sports coverage we have, particularly around combos. There have been some challenges around that, particularly around being able to access the range of content rather than a product front-end issue.
“If you look at the Betfair Predicts product that is live in the UK, that is a fantastic example of what the team can deliver.“
Legal uncertainty
Jackson also addressed the legal status of prediction markets, acknowledging that there may not be certainty any time soon. About a dozen cases are moving through federal and state courts as the gambling and financial industries struggle to determine whether or not prediction markets will ultimately be defined as gambling. They are currently classified as financial tools.
“Until we find out what the Supreme Court says, we’re going to have to live with this uncertainty,” he said.
The business increased its lobbying spend during the quarter, though specific figures were not given.
In prepared remarks, Jackson said there was not much of a sign that prediction markets were directly cannibalizing sportsbook handle, but added that there may be some indirect effects that warrant closer study.
“We continued to see only a limited cannibalization impact from prediction market operators on our sportsbook growth, consistent with our prior estimate of a low single-digit percentage effect on handle growth,” he said. “This estimate is primarily based on a comprehensive tracking of deposit data along with download data and monitoring of trends we are observing within the FanDuel customer database.
“We believe this limited impact reflects the fundamental differences in product propositions between sportsbooks and prediction market platforms, customer age profiles, and concentration of prediction market activity among entertainment-first and low-value users.
“While the direct cannibalization impact has been limited, we do believe prediction market operators may be attracting some new, incremental entertainment-first recreational customer cohorts, and we continue to monitor the impact of prediction market operators on the broader sports betting ecosystem.”
Amy Howe departure
With Howe leaving the business, Christian Genetski, formerly president of FanDuel, will take over as FanDuel CEO. Dan Taylor, CEO of Flutter’s international division, will take on the newly created role of president of Flutter, which the company said would include “oversight of the FanDuel business.”
Flutter revealed that the business will pay Howe $4.4 million in severance.
“I would like to thank Amy for her contributions to Flutter and FanDuel, and recognize the impact she has had on the business since joining in 2021,” Jackson said on the earnings call. “We wish her every success for the future.
“Looking forward, the U.S. market and FanDuel’s No. 1 position within it represents one of the most significant growth opportunities in our industry, and it is essential that we have the right structure and leadership in place to fully capitalize on it.”
Return to ‘customer-focused’ approach
Jackson did not go into the specifics of the change in management at FanDuel.
However, when he talked about how things were changing at FanDuel, he suggested that the business had been too reluctant to give out bonuses or other forms of generosity to its users while results were going the sportsbook’s way last year.
“We’re getting back to a customer-focused approach,” Jackson said. “And we’re seeing that with how we’ve been trading the business in the last quarter. There have been some good refunds the team have been doing, it’s engaging from a social perspective.
“I think the Bet Protect+ product was important. We needed to deal with the issue of injuries. I think we put a great solution in place.”
After the company’s 2025 results, Jackson expressed a similar view, claiming the company “should have pushed harder on generosity and we didn’t.“
Flutter annual results
Flutter reported $4.30 billion in revenue for the quarter, up 17.5% from the same period of 2025. The the U.S. contributed $1.76 billion, up 5% year-on-year. Bettor-friendly sports results cost FanDuel $45 million in the quarter.
flutter-q1-2026-earnings-releaseAdjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) came to $706 million, with $119 million from the U.S.
Group profit fell from $681 million to $84 million. The vast majority of that change was due to currency exchange differences, with profit from the first quarter of 2025 being unusually high due to gains on the assets of foreign entities.
The business reduced its full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance from $2.97 billion to $2.87 billion, due to increasing spend in Arkansas — which opened up its sports betting market to out-of-state entities like FanDuel in March — as well as sporting results.
The business spent $40 million on prediction markets in the first quarter, and is set to spend significantly more in the second half of the year. Flutter is currently allocating between $250 million and $300 million in prediction market spending for the year.
“Starting out in Q1, that was really about testing and learning and our ability to acquire customers,” Jackson said. “We spent circa $40 million in Q1. It’s pretty early days but we’ve always said that we anticipate the majority of our spend to be in the second half of the year. We will invest around the World Cup and we expect to spend slightly more in Q2 than Q1.”
