Robinhood Teams Up with Kalshi on March Madness Contracts

• Brokerage firm looking to capitalize on an event popular with bettors
• Latest sign of previously announced partnership with Kalshi

Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ: HOOD) announced that it is partnering with prediction markets behemoth Kalshi to bring NCAA Tournament event contracts to clients.

The contracts are offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC and will be available on the 64 teams that set the fields for the men’s and women’s tournaments, meaning the financial services firm will not be making markets in the play-in games. To be eligible for Robinhood Derivatives, clients must be approved for margin trading or the broker’s second and third tiers of options trading.

The news emerged about six weeks after the company said it was partnering with Kalshi on Super Bowl event contracts — an effort that was scrapped following a request for information by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The CFTC is the regulator of Kalshi and Robinhood Derivatives.

March Madness Could Be Conducive to Robinhood Contracts

The frenetic nature of many NCAA Tournament games and the penchant for both the men’s and women’s events to generate upsets could be among the reasons why Robinhood’s event contracts make inroads with bettors that would typically wager on sides and totals.

In nearly all cases, early round games involve teams that haven’t played each other, which can make handicapping tricky. The structure of event contracts could be appealing to a broader swath of investors and prospective bettors. Robinhood’s March Madness contracts are essentially a yes/no bet on what team will win the game.

How event contracts trade could also be appealing to bettors and investors when those assets are combined with the NCAA Tournament. Like stocks, the contracts’ values fluctuate as more “yes” or “no” bets enter the market.

Given the likelihood of multiple upsets in the tourneys’ early rounds, “yes” event contracts on heavy underdogs, particularly when purchased at low prices, could offer comparable or superior payouts to money line bets.

Ins and Outs of Robinhood March Madness Contracts

There are some stipulations on the NCAA Tournament event contracts Robinhood clients need to be aware of. For example, the trading hours are 8 AM — 3 AM Eastern time and each contract features a commission of one cent and an exchange fee of the same amount to buy and sell.

Additionally, bettors and investors cannot take both sides of an event. For example, Robinhood clients looking to invest in the men’s tournament’s first game can’t bet “yes” on Louisville and “no” on Creighton.

Winning contracts held through the end of the event will be paid out at $1 per contract while losing contracts will be worthless. Robinhood said there is a maximum position size of 50,000 contracts per event.