Sportico: Sportsbook Prediction Markets Launched With Few Responsible Gaming Safeguards
Posted on: January 12, 2026, 04:12h.
Last updated on: January 11, 2026, 07:03h.
- Sportsbook prediction markets launched with fewer responsible gaming resources
- That’s according to a report in Sportico, which highlighted the lack of a helpline
An uncovering from Sportico highlights the differences between sportsbooks’ betting apps compared with their recent prediction market launches.
Last month, Fanatics, DraftKings, and FanDuel respectively debuted Fanatics Markets, DraftKings Predictions, and FanDuel Predicts. The prediction markets are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), with the online platforms and apps holding Designated Contract Market and Futures Commission Merchant licenses from the independent agency of the federal government.
Prediction markets are not governed by state gaming laws, which require a glut of responsible gaming safeguards. The CFTC requires no such protections, as CFTC licensees are prohibited from offering trading contracts involving “gaming.”
Critics of Kalshi and the sportsbook prediction market entries argue that sports event contracts constitute illegal gambling. State lawmakers, gaming regulators, and attorneys general have overwhelmingly reached that opinion.
Prediction Markets and Responsible Gaming
Opponents to CFTC-regulated prediction markets offering sports contracts say DraftKings, FanDuel, and Fanatics launched such platforms to take sports bets in states where such gambling is prohibited, including in California and Texas. Sportico Assistant Editor Dan Bernstein highlighted in a Friday report that the three sportsbooks that launched prediction markets offered far fewer responsible gaming tools in their prediction market apps than they do in their sports betting operations.
At launch, the companies have only brought some of the anti-addiction tools from their mobile sportsbooks into their standalone prediction market apps. While users can set betting limits and lock their accounts in the new apps, the platforms did not immediately provide gambling addiction hotline information, session time data, or the same betting history visualizations,” Bernstein wrote.
Every state with commercial casino gaming requires operators to promote responsible gaming resources. In the 31 states and Washington, DC, that have regulated online sports betting, all require the online sportsbooks to include a self-help hotline like 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-522-4700.
Prediction markets bypass state and tribal oversight and claim federal regulation by the CFTC, an agency with no gambling expertise that oversees cattle futures and derivatives, not sportsbook operations and responsible gaming protocols,” added the American Gaming Association.
DraftKings, FanDuel, and Fanatics rescinded their AGA memberships before launching their prediction markets.
Sportsbooks Respond
In the wake of the Sportico report, FanDuel Predicts integrated the hotline number to the National Council on Problem Gambling (1-800-522-4700). A DraftKings spokesperson said DraftKings Predictions has various responsible gaming tools, including deposit limits, cool-off options, and self-exclusion.
Keith Whyte, the former executive director of the NCPG, now working for FanDuel Predicts, told Sportico that “we can’t just assume one size fits all” because “this is all new and there are differences between the verticals.”
Cole Wogoman, the NCPG’s government relations director and a former colleague of Whyte’s, offered a different opinion.
From a problem gambling perspective, buying and selling futures contracts through prediction markets is functionally gambling, particularly when those contracts are tied to sports, an activity long associated with gambling,” Wogoman said. “The legal classification of prediction markets is irrelevant to whether it can contribute to a gambling problem.”
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