Robinhood Brings Football To Prediction Markets, Distinguishes From Sports Betting

(RTTNews) - Robinhood Markets (HOOD) is expanding its prediction markets to include football, giving users the ability to trade on the outcomes of NFL and major college football games.

The feature, announced Tuesday, will cover all professional matchups and games involving Power Four schools the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Big 12 as well as independents such as Notre Dame.

The company was quick to stress that this is not conventional sports betting. Instead, the platform offers "event contracts," which function more like financial instruments than wagers.

Rather than odds set by a bookmaker, prices are determined by buyers and sellers in real time. Traders can enter, adjust, or exit positions throughout a game, making the system closer to a marketplace than a sportsbook.

"Football is far and away the most popular sport in America," said JB Mackenzie, Robinhood's Vice President and General Manager of Futures and International. "Adding pro and college football to our prediction markets hub is a natural step as we aim to make Robinhood a one-stop destination for investing and trading."

Robinhood has leaned aggressively into prediction markets since launching them late last year. More than two billion contracts have been traded so far, and executives point to sports-linked markets as one of the fastest-growing areas of user activity.

Football contracts will be available daily from 8 a.m. to 3 a.m. ET and are rolling out in the coming days.