DraftKings Enters Prediction Market Space With Polymarket Clearing
DraftKings Picks Polymarket as Clearing Partner
Polymarket will serve as the clearinghouse for DraftKings’ planned entry into prediction markets, according to founder Shayne Coplan. The announcement followed DraftKings’ purchase of Railbird Technologies, a designated contract market regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
“Congrats to DraftKings on their acquisition of Railbird,” Coplan wrote on X on Wednesday. “We’re proud for Polymarket Clearing to be their designated clearinghouse as they enter the prediction market space.”
The arrangement expands Polymarket’s role in clearing and settlement infrastructure for event-based markets, a function that has become central as regulators weigh how to classify prediction contracts under U.S. commodity law.
Investor Takeaway
Industry Impact and Competitive Landscape
The move marks a pivot for Polymarket toward business-to-business services, supplementing its retail base on Polygon, where it hosts thousands of prediction markets on politics, sports, and current events. For DraftKings, the partnership provides an immediate pathway to offer CFTC-regulated markets without building clearing infrastructure from scratch.
Analyst Dustin Gouker, who covers the gambling industry, said the entrance of mainstream operators such as DraftKings could alter the sector’s balance of power. “If DraftKings and FanDuel begin doing sports prediction markets in the short term, it’s kind of over for Kalshi as a B2C company,” he wrote on X. “They need to be aggressive on the B2B front.”
Kalshi, another U.S.-regulated platform, has recently overtaken Polymarket in volume, driven by sports-related contracts. Both firms signed a multi-year licensing deal with the National Hockey League earlier this week to test sports betting products tied to tokenized prediction outcomes.
DraftKings Expands Into Regulated Prediction Markets
Founded in 2012, DraftKings operates in 28 U.S. states and Canada for sports betting and in five states for online gaming, accounting for over 90% of its total sales. Its acquisition of Railbird provides a regulated foundation for launching prediction markets under the supervision of the CFTC. Railbird had previously said it would use Polymarket as its clearing partner, a plan that now appears to be moving forward under the DraftKings umbrella.
The partnership also positions DraftKings to compete with blockchain-native platforms through a model familiar to U.S. retail bettors. For Polymarket, integration with a mass-market betting brand extends its technology into a new regulatory domain, aligning it more closely with traditional financial infrastructure.
Investor Takeaway
Backed by Institutional Capital
Earlier this month, Intercontinental platform (ICE)—the parent company of the New York Stock platform—said it would invest $2 billion in Polymarket, underscoring Wall Street’s growing interest in blockchain-based financial infrastructure. The funding provides a foundation for scaling clearing operations and integrating with larger trading platforms.
Polymarket’s collaboration with DraftKings arrives as regulators viewk to distinguish between prediction markets, gambling, and derivatives. The partnership may serve as a model for how licensed operators can offer retail-accessible markets while maintaining compliance with U.S. commodity laws.
As CFTC-registered venues expand and large consumer brands enter the space, prediction markets are poised to evolve from niche blockchain experiments into a regulated asset class. For now, Polymarket’s clearing deal with DraftKings stands as one of the most concrete signs of that shift.
