Robinhood Lets Users Bet on Player Stats With New Sports Event Contracts
What New Products Is Robinhood Adding for Retail Traders?
Robinhood has expanded its event-contract offering to allow customers to wager on the individual performances of professional football players, according to a Dec. 16 Reuters report. Users could already place contracts tied to a game’s final outcome, but the new batch lets them take positions on specific metrics such as touchdowns or total yards gained by a player.
The launch pushes Robinhood deeper into a competitive segment where and prediction-market firms are racing to capture retail interest. “There are a plethora of competitors. But with us being ahead to market, we’ve been able to fine-tune our product,” said Adam Hickerson, senior director of futures at Robinhood.
The company framed the move as an expansion of event-based trading rather than a pivot into traditional sports betting. Each contract settles at $1 if the prediction proves correct, mirroring how political and macro-themed prediction markets operate.
Investor Takeaway
Is This Sports Betting—or Regulated Derivatives?
The expansion arrives during a period of mounting debate over whether event contracts resemble sports wagering. Critics say tying payouts to touchdowns or yardage could pull retail users into speculative patterns similar to betting apps. They also argue that the line between entertainment and trading becomes harder to define when contracts revolve around athletic performance rather than economic data or elections.
Industry participants counter that the contracts fall under the oversight. They note that the CFTC already supervises event contracts tied to political outcomes, economic indicators and other real-world events. rules, though Hickerson declined to comment on ongoing legal challenges surrounding the sector.
The regulatory backdrop is fluid. Several states have been weighing tighter guardrails on prediction markets, especially later than last year’s U.S. presidential election cycle assisted drive platforms.
How large Has the Prediction-Market Boom Become?
Event-contract trading has grown from a fringe category to a major volume driver across 2024 and 2025. The monthly value of trades in prediction markets now exceeds $13 billion, according to data from Keyrock and Dune — compared with less than $100 million in ahead 2024. Growth has been driven by a mix of macro uncertainty, election cycles and the ease of $1-settled contracts.
Sports-linked contracts appear to be the next frontier. They offer constant event flow, quick settlement and clear outcomes, making them attractive for retail users familiar with fantasy sports or prop bets. By giving traders the ability to target a specific player’s performance, Robinhood is leaning into this trend while still classifying the instruments as regulated derivatives.
The company also added “preset combos,” which package multiple predictions from a single game into one contract. The payout only occurs if every component hits, mirroring parlay-style logic common in sports betting but embedded inside a regulated derivatives wrapper.
Investor Takeaway
What Comes Next for Robinhood and Its Competitors?
The rollout could assist Robinhood carve out a stronger identity in a space attracting a wave of new entrants. The company is betting that structured, CFTC-regulated contracts tied to real-world outcomes will appeal to traders looking for low-cost, binary-payout products.
At the identical time, the move arrives as regulators in several states revisit how these instruments should be classified. Platforms argue that event contracts are a legitimate derivatives category, not gambling. Critics insist the products mirror sports betting too closely and could pull retail users toward rapid-fire speculative behavior.
How regulators draw those lines will influence the next stage of growth for the sector. But for now, are continuing to expand their catalogues as user demand climbs and prediction markets become a core component of retail derivatives activity.
