Fanatics Acquires Regulated Trading Platform, Bets on Prediction Market Race to Accelerate Expansion

BlockBeats News, July 27th - U.S. sports retail giant Fanatics announced that it has agreed to acquire Water Street Labs and CX Clearinghouse, subsidiaries of BGC Group, to acquire a federally regulated exchange and clearinghouse, in order to build and operate its own prediction market business.

This transaction will enable Fanatics to independently issue and clear event contracts, enhancing its control over the design and launch speed of prediction market products. The two parties also plan to develop new market data products that combine prediction market trading data with traditional financial data.

In recent years, the prediction market has grown rapidly, with trading expanding from election results to areas such as inflation, sports events, and financial events. Among them, Kalshi, regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the blockchain-based Polymarket have become industry representatives.

Fanatics aims to leverage its large sports user base to promote the mass adoption of prediction markets. The company's Markets platform was launched by the end of 2024, currently covering 23 states in the U.S. and 4 international regions.

In addition, Coinbase has partnered with Kalshi to provide prediction market services to users across the U.S., Robinhood has also started to list event contracts, and sports betting platform DraftKings previously announced plans to enter the prediction market field.