Highlights of the partnership via a Reuters article, doing the rounds on a few other sites as well though.
-
FanDuel (via parent company Flutter) is teaming up with CME Group to offer event contracts in late 2025.
-
They’ll operate through a freshly formed joint venture acting as a non‑clearing futures commission merchant.
-
Event contracts span outcomes like daily moves in the S&P 500, oil, gold, or economic indicators.
-
Pricing starts from just $1, enabling frequent, low‑entry-point speculation.
-
The popularity of event contracts surged after the 2024 U.S. presidential election, attracting both retail interest and industry attention.
-
Flutter brings valuable experience from Betfair, a pioneer betting exchange sharing key traits with event contracts.
-
This asset class faces regulatory red flags. KalshiEX had a legal clash with the CFTC over election contracts; Robinhood halted Super Bowl–related contracts after CFTC intervention.
-
Critics argue event contracts blur lines between financial trading and gambling, raising public trust and integrity concerns.
This sounds like a fancier version of a binary options with fixed payouts for yes or no outcomes. There is a reason binary options faced so much scrutiny, and I can’t imagine this will be much different than that.
Where this could be really useful for some is in providing a slightly more real-time sense of where retail sentiment is leaning. For those who like to fade retail positioning, this could offer useful info, depending on how the data and odds are displayed.
This article was written by Arno V Venter at investinglive.com.
