Betfair Eyes Prediction Market Growth with ‘Betfair Predicts’

• Betfair tests prediction markets product using existing exchange liquidity
• UK faces regulatory uncertainty between gambling and financial oversight bodies
• US crackdown highlights growing global tensions around prediction market classification

UK exchange betting operator Betfair has confirmed it is trialing a new prediction markets-based product ahead of a potential launch in the UK.

The so-called ‘Betfair Predicts’ product is essentially a new wrapper or interface on the existing Betfair Exchange that is currently being tested among a small select group of existing account holders on an invite-only basis.

Using existing exchange liquidity, customers will be able to trade on real-world events across sports, politics, and entertainment markets – but rather than placing their bet in the traditional way, they will make a prediction by picking Yes/No and then entering their stake.

High Demand

Sources at Flutter have indicated that while the launch is still in its early stages, customer feedback has shown demand for the product in the UK market.

Betfair has said that there is “strong and untapped” interest for prediction market formats in the UK, and that it as an exchange betting operator is best placed to take advantage of this.

Staff at Betfair supported FanDuel in the US with technical expertise for the launch of FanDuel Predicts last year.

Despite dabbling in prediction markets, the UK operator suggested that its exchange product remains successful, pointing to 10% growth in 2025.

Crossing the Atlantic

While prediction markets are in their nascent stage in the UK, they are quickly becoming a popular – if controversial – vertical in the US, where they are regulated as financial instruments at a federal level rather than as state-governed gambling products.

Meanwhile, bills have been introduced in Congress that would prevent prediction markets from offering trades on future outcomes related to government actions, terrorism, war, assassination, and events where an individual could know or control the outcome.

The UK has a centralized, unitary system of government, rather than a federal system, which removes the kind of state-federal jurisdictional conflicts seen in the US.

Operating effectively as a ‘reskin’ of the Betfair Exchange product, Betfair Predicts is seen as gambling, so in turn is included in Betfair’s existing UK Gambling Commission license and subject to UK regulations.