Robinhood is “going to be a leader” in sports event contracts, says CEO
A bullish Vladimir Tenev insists during a Q&A session with analysts that prediction markets “are the future”, yet regulatory clarity around sports is still needed
The CEO of Robinhood has stated publicly that the California-based retail brokerage firm will be at the forefront of the burgeoning sports event contracts space in the US.
That’s despite Robinhood pulling its product after just 24 hours earlier this month, following an intervention by the derivatives markets regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Vladimir Tenev, who was speaking yesterday, February 12, during the company’s Q4 2024 earnings presentation, acknowledged regulatory clarity was required, yet he insisted: “We believe in it [sports event contracts], and we’re going to be a leader.”
“So, you should expect us to not just offer it, but continue to drive and push for regulatory clarity, industry-wide,” he added in response to a question about sports event contracts posed by Dan Dolev, a Wall Street analyst at Mizuho Securities.
Tenev also talked up the potential of prediction markets more generally: “I think prediction markets are the future […] not just as an active trading asset, but also news and information.
“And Robinhood’s going to be right there leading the way. I think we’re going to continue to innovate.”
Built internally and rolled out within two weeks, Robinhood launched event contracts on the US presidential election in November 2024 – the result being 507 million contracts were traded on the race to the White House between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
“So, we were one of the few platforms that offered the ability to trade the election,” the 38-year-old CEO said. “And that was very successful for us. We had over half-a-billion contracts traded in right around a week leading up to the election.
“What you should expect from us is a comprehensive events platform that will give access to prediction markets across a wide variety of contracts later this year.”
He continued: “The team has been hard at work at that. As with any new innovative asset class, we’re pushing the boundaries here, and there’s not regulatory clarity across all of it yet, in particular, sports, which you [Dolev] mentioned.”
Robinhood’s briefly available sports event contracts offering, which was powered by predictions market Kalshi, offered its customers the chance to trade sports outcomes, including the winner of Super Bowl LIX between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Following a formal request by the CFTC to not permit customers to access sports event contracts, management decided to suspend the offering and “work with the CFTC to understand their concerns.”
Kalshi, which won a court case to legally offer prediction markets on the election across the US, saw around $27m traded on the winner of the Super Bowl.
Meanwhile, Singapore-based crypto exchange Crypto.com first launched sports event contracts just before Christmas yet ignored a CFTC request to remove the markets.
Understandably, all these products have courted considerable industry attention, particular as it encroached into legal and regulated sports betting’s territory.
Moreover, Kalshi’s markets are available in all 50 US states and for anyone over the age of 18.
However, the likes of Kalshi and Robinhood were given a boost yesterday with the news President Trump is to nominate crypto-friendly Brian Quintenz for chair of the CFTC, replacing acting chair Caroline Pham.
Quintenz is on Kalshi’s board and has served as an adviser to Crypto.com. He also previously disagreed when the CFTC looked to prevent derivatives exchange ErisX from offering self-certified NFL markets.
What’s more, Donald Trump Jr recently being made a strategic adviser to Kalshi provides the Manhattan-based startup with clout in political circles.
Chris Grove, partner emeritus at research firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, wrote in a LinkedIn post yesterday how the “collision of sportsbooks and prediction markets is well underway”.
He also said he wouldn’t be surprised to see FanDuel or DraftKings strike a B2B deal with Kalshi before the start of the next NFL season.
Robinhood announced that Q4 revenue rocketed 115% year on year to just over $1bn, while net deposits swelled to a record $16bn.
Much of the growth was attributed to a surge in equity, options and crypto trading following Trump’s return to the Oval Office.
Robinhood shares are up 42% so far in 2025.