FanDuel vs. Fanatics: A look at their prediction-market models
Two of the biggest names in American sports have both entered prediction markets, and they have built very different things.
One launched a standalone app tied to a derivatives exchange; the other built a sports-first exchange product under its own regulated entity.
The differences are not cosmetic. They affect which events you can trade, where you can trade them, and how the contracts themselves are priced.
Key Takeaways
- FanDuel Predicts launched in December 2025 through a partnership with CME Group, which acted as the exchange venue at launch.
- Fanatics Markets operates through Morton St. Trading Investments, a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant and NFA member.
- FanDuel priced its contracts from one cent to 99 cents, while Fanatics Markets prices contracts between zero and one hundred dollars.
- FanDuel Predicts launched with sports contracts only in states where online sports betting was not yet legal, and said it would withdraw them as states legalized.
- Fanatics Markets runs sports as its core category, including international leagues that FanDuel Predicts did not cover at launch.
Two routes into the same category
FanDuel took the partnership route. It launched FanDuel Predicts on 22 December 2025 with CME Group, the derivatives marketplace, serving as the exchange venue behind the product.
The platform arrived as a standalone mobile app in Alabama, Alaska, South Carolina, North Dakota and South Dakota, with a phased national rollout announced for the following months.
FanDuel is part of Flutter Entertainment, and the app was built on the company’s existing identity verification and compliance infrastructure.
Fanatics took a different path. Fanatics Markets operates as the trading name of Morton St. Trading Investments, which is itself a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant and a member of the National Futures Association.
Its contracts are offered through Crypto.com Derivatives North America under Nadex rules. The practical distinction is that Fanatics holds the regulated brokerage relationship directly rather than sitting alongside an exchange partner as a consumer front end.
How the contracts work
Both platforms sell the same underlying instrument. You buy a contract on whether something will happen, and it settles at full value if the event occurs and at zero if it does not.
The pricing conventions differ. FanDuel Predicts described contracts ranging from one cent to 99 cents, with users choosing yes or no on a given outcome.
Fanatics Markets prices its contracts between zero and one hundred dollars for the same mechanic.
A contract at 60 dollars carries the same implied probability as one at 60 cents, though the capital committed per contract differs between the two conventions.
Fanatics Markets also runs combination orders through a request for quote process, where the order goes to the exchange and liquidity providers respond with executable quotes.
That is a more familiar structure to anyone who has traded derivatives than to someone arriving from a consumer app.
Where the sports coverage differs
This is the sharpest contrast between the two models. It comes from how each company handles the overlap between event contracts and its own sportsbook.
At launch, FanDuel Predicts offered sports contracts across baseball, basketball, football, and hockey, but only in states where online sports betting was not yet legal, and not on tribal lands.
The companies stated that as new states legalized online sports betting, FanDuel Predicts would stop offering sports event contracts in those states.
Fanatics Markets runs sports as its central category rather than as a gap-filler. Its board covers baseball, basketball, football, hockey, tennis, soccer, golf, esports, fighting, motorsports and sailing.
The soccer coverage is the clearest example of that breadth, with competitions listed across Europe and the Americas, including the Premier League, LaLiga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, MLS and the Champions League.
Anyone looking at Fanatics Markets EPL lines will find three-way moneylines that include the draw, alongside roughly 57 contracts per fixture and a season-long champion market.
What the structural difference means
The FanDuel model treats sports prediction markets as complementary to its sportsbook. Where the sportsbook operates, the prediction product steps back from sports and focuses on financial and cultural events instead.
That produces a narrower sports footprint and a clearer separation between the two products. Traders in a state with legal online sports betting were directed toward the sportsbook, with FanDuel Predicts covering indices such as the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100, energy prices and economic indicators.
The Fanatics model treats the exchange as the product. Sports sit at the center, with crypto, politics, culture, and economy markets arranged around them, and the same contracts are available regardless of what sports betting looks like in a given state.
Neither approach is inherently better, and they answer different questions. One treats event contracts as a way to reach markets a sportsbook cannot; the other treats them as a product in their own right.
Volume patterns reflect that difference. Premier League fixtures on the Fanatics board carried between a few hundred and several thousand dollars of volume heading into the weekend of 19 September, spread across nine matches and a season-long champion market rather than concentrated in a single category.
Conclusion
FanDuel and Fanatics Markets arrived in prediction markets within months of each other and built almost opposite products.
One is a partnership-led app that defers to the sportsbook where it exists; the other is a sports-first exchange operating under its own regulated entity.
For anyone deciding where to participate, the questions worth asking are which events you actually want exposure to and which categories each platform treats as core.
Trading event contracts involves risk and is not appropriate for everyone, and neither model removes that.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are prediction markets the same as sports betting?
No, they are structurally different. Prediction market contracts are regulated as event contracts under the CFTC framework and are bought and sold at prices that move, whereas a sportsbook offers a fixed price accepted at the point of placement.
Who regulates each platform?
Fanatics Markets operates through a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant that is an NFA member, with contracts offered through Crypto.com Derivatives North America.
FanDuel Predicts operates in partnership with CME Group, which acts as the exchange venue.
Why does FanDuel restrict sports contracts by state?
At launch, the company offered sports contracts only where online sports betting was not yet legal, and said it would withdraw them as states legalized it. That keeps the prediction product from competing directly with its own sportsbook.
Can you trade international sports on both?
Fanatics Markets covers international competitions including the Premier League, LaLiga, Serie A and the Champions League. FanDuel Predicts launched with baseball, basketball, football and hockey.
What does the contract price actually represent?
It represents the market’s current estimate of the probability that the outcome occurs. A contract trading at 60 out of 100 implies roughly a 60 percent chance, and that figure moves as participants buy and sell.
Can you exit a position before the event finishes?
Yes, that is a defining feature of an exchange-style market. Positions can be sold at the prevailing price rather than held until the event resolves.
How many markets exist on a single soccer fixture?
The current Premier League board shows roughly 57 contracts per match. That covers the three-way result, including the draw, plus totals and a range of team and player outcomes.
