DraftKings expands away from sports after major

DraftKings, the gaming behemoth, announced on Tuesday its acquisition of prediction market platform Railbird, signaling its intent to broaden its current sports betting and fantasy choices.

Prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket permit prospects to wager on the outcomes of real-world occasions. Until now, DraftKings’ clientele was restricted to betting on sports outcomes, such as NFL game scores or golf tournament winners, along with daily fantasy sports.

Now, they’re going to have a wider vary of buying and selling choices. DraftKings already has offers with the likes of Barstool Sports, and presents prop bets on NFL games, NBA games and Major League Baseball. “We are excited about the additional opportunity that prediction markets could represent for our business,” said Jason Robins, CEO and Co-Founder of DraftKings, in a press release.

“We believe that Railbird’s team and platform-combined with DraftKings’ scale, trusted brand, and proven expertise in mobile-first products-positions us to win in this incremental space.”

The company confirmed plans to launch a separate DraftKings Predictions cellular app in Tuesday’s press release. This app will allow customers to “trade regulated event contracts on real-world outcomes across finance, culture, and entertainment.”

Railbird is a federally regulated prediction market platform that obtained approval as a chosen contract market by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in June 2025. According to Railbird’s official web site, the product is “coming soon.”

Prediction markets have seen a big surge in current months. As reported by Bloomberg, Kalshi was valued at $5 billion in its latest funding round, following a $300 million funding shortly after the New York City-based change confirmed that customers from over 140 nations can place bets on its platform.

Just days prior, Polymarket announced securing an funding of as much as $2 billion from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the proprietor of the New York Stock Exchange, in a deal that valued the company at $8 billion.

Kalshi operates across all 50 US states, while Polymarket not too long ago obtained approval to reenter the nation, having been blocked by the CTFC since 2022.

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It’s anticipated that DraftKings Predictions will probably be accessible to prospects in many states – such as California, Texas and Florida – the place cellular sports betting is at the moment unavailable.

Before DraftKings’ acquisition of Railbird, Polymarket posted an event titled, ‘Will DraftKings purchase Railbird by October 31?’ permitting customers to buy contracts on ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ outcomes. DraftKings is not the only U.S. sports betting big venturing into the quickly rising enterprise of prediction markets.

In August, FanDuel announced its partnership with CME Group to “create a federally regulated platform for event contracts” with plans to launch in late 2025.

“We believe there is potentially a wide audience for trading event-based markets, and we want to provide a platform that allows our customers to engage in this activity,” said FanDuel Group CEO Amy Howe in a press release.