FanDuel Shifts Sports Event Contracts to Crypto.com While CME Retains Financial Derivatives

Flutter Entertainment’s (NYSE: FLUT) second-quarter earnings call delivered plenty of headline-grabbing news yesterday, but one major strategic pivot stood out: FanDuel is shifting its sports and novelty prediction markets from CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) to Crypto.com.

On a Wednesday (August 5) conference call with analysts, outgoing Flutter CEO Peter Jackson said that FanDuel Predicts — the sportsbook’s prediction market platform — “in coordination with CME,” FanDuel is moving novelty and sports event contracts to Crypto.com.

In June, FanDuel announced a prediction market partnership with Crypto.com’s OG Prediction Markets.

That deal is largely centered on entertainment and sports event contracts as well as “combos” — prediction market industry speak for parlays. Financial derivatives, including those linked to major equity indexes, offered by FanDuel Predicts will remain with CME.

Trouble in Paradise?

CME and FanDuel unveiled their prediction market partnership nearly a year ago with an emphasis on economic data and financial markets.

As FanDuel Predicts expanded into sports event contracts—the platform’s most popular derivatives—industry observers questioned the long-term viability of its CME partnership. The shift to Crypto.com now fuels speculation of growing tension between FanDuel and the exchange operator.

There may be some validity to that chatter. On CME’s second-quarter earnings conference call last month, CEO Terry Duffy said sports event contracts are “gambling,” adding that the Supreme Court could eventually decide the fate of those derivatives.

About a week later, CME announced a partnership with FutureSports that could evolve into a challenge to the sports contracts offered by yes/no exchanges. FutureSports constructs indexes tied to athlete and team performance. CME is aiming to list futures and options contracts on those gauges.

Market Making a Bright Spot for FanDuel Predicts

Flutter’s second-quarter earnings were rough with the gaming company downwardly revising its 2026 earnings and sales guidance, triggering a sell-off in the already moribund stock.

There were, however, some bright spots, including commentary on the gaming company’s ability to leverage established sports trading expertise for revenue growth in yes/no market making.

“We believe we’re also uniquely positioned to provide liquidity for combination markets across different prediction market platforms with a market-making offering that can scale rapidly and at low incremental investment,” said Jackson on the call.

“It is very early days, but we would expect to generate approximately $50 million of revenue from market making this year, demonstrating both the good progress made so far and the potential opportunity,” he added.