FanDuel Predicts Is Now Live for Sports in 18 States — A Practical Guide for Bettors Wondering If It Replaces Their Sportsbook

FanDuel launched a standalone prediction markets app in December 2025, built in partnership with CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives marketplace. By January 15, 2026, FanDuel Predicts was available in all 50 U.S. states. Sports event contracts, however, are offered in only 18 of those states — specifically the ones where FanDuel does not already hold an online sports betting license. For bettors in California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, and the other states on that list, it is the first time they can legally bet on an NBA game outcome under the FanDuel brand. For everyone else, FanDuel Predicts offers financial and economic markets but not sports. The question bettors are asking is a practical one: what is this thing, how does it actually work, and should it change how you bet on sports?

What FanDuel Predicts Is

FanDuel Predicts is a binary event contract platform. Users pick “Yes” or “No” on a real-world outcome, buy a contract priced between $0.01 and $0.99, and get paid $1.00 if they are right. The pricing reflects the market’s implied probability: a contract trading at $0.65 means the market believes the event has roughly a 65 percent chance of happening. Users can also sell contracts before resolution, capturing gains or limiting losses as the market price moves. The platform is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission rather than state gaming regulators, which is the legal mechanism that allows it to operate in states without legalized sports betting. That regulatory framework — the same one used by Kalshi and Robinhood’s prediction market product — is currently being contested in courts by several states that argue the contracts amount to unlicensed sports gambling regardless of how they are classified under federal commodities law.

The CME Group partnership is not cosmetic. CME Group provides the exchange infrastructure and regulatory expertise behind the product. When FanDuel describes the platform as having a “peer-to-peer matching system,” it means contracts are traded between users rather than against FanDuel directly. FanDuel collects a small spread on each transaction rather than taking the other side of the market. This is structurally different from the traditional sportsbook model, though the practical difference for most casual users is modest.

Which 18 States Have Sports Contracts

FanDuel Predicts offers sports event contracts only in states where FanDuel does not hold a sports betting license, and the company has stated that it will cease offering sports contracts in any state that subsequently legalizes sports betting. The 18 states with sports access as of January 2026 are Alabama, Alaska, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and Utah. Ten of those states do not have legal sports betting at all. Florida is a special case: sports betting is legal there, but the only licensed operator is the Seminole Tribe’s Hard Rock Bet, which means FanDuel does not hold a license and can therefore offer prediction market sports contracts. Delaware and Rhode Island have sports betting but also have state-run monopoly models that do not include FanDuel as a licensed operator.

For bettors in the 32 states that have legal sports betting and where FanDuel is a licensed sportsbook, FanDuel Predicts is available but limited to financial, economic, and commodity markets. No NFL games. No NBA outcomes. The product becomes primarily useful for those bettors as a way to trade non-sports markets, which is a different audience than the one most sports bettors represent.

How It Compares to FanDuel Sportsbook

The products serve different purposes and are not interchangeable. FanDuel Sportsbook offers thousands of betting markets per day, including spreads, totals, player props, parlays, and same-game parlays, all priced with traditional -110 or equivalent lines that build in a margin for the operator. FanDuel Predicts offers binary Yes/No contracts on a narrower set of outcomes — primarily game winners and some totals in the sports states — with prices that reflect actual market sentiment rather than a fixed house margin. The depth and variety of FanDuel Sportsbook dwarfs what Predicts currently offers. A bettor looking to make a same-game parlay on an NFL Sunday has no equivalent product in FanDuel Predicts. A bettor in California who wants to pick an NBA game winner legally under a regulated framework and does not want to use an offshore sportsbook now has an option they did not have before.

Piper Sandler analysts noted that CME Group could generate more than $300 million in revenue from the FanDuel partnership if the platform reaches the scale of comparable products at Kalshi and Robinhood. That number reflects analyst projections, not current results, but it signals the size of the commercial opportunity FanDuel and CME are chasing. For those interested in learning more about the traditional FanDuel sportsbook product alongside this new platform, the FanDuel sportsbook review covers the full betting experience in detail. Bettors in states where the sportsbook is available should also check for any current FanDuel promo code offers before signing up for either product.

Should Bettors Use It Alongside or Instead of a Sportsbook?

The honest answer depends heavily on where you live. For bettors in the 32 states where FanDuel Sportsbook is available, FanDuel Predicts is a supplementary product, not a replacement. The sports contract limitation means it does not compete with the sportsbook for most of what sports bettors actually want to do. The financial markets — S&P 500 direction, CPI figures, Fed rate decisions — are genuinely interesting for users who follow economic news, but that is a different product for a different type of user.

For bettors in California, Texas, and the other 16 sports-contract states, FanDuel Predicts fills a gap. It is not the full sportsbook experience — the market depth is limited, parlays are not available, and the Yes/No binary structure removes some of the nuance that spread and total bettors prefer. But it is a legitimate, regulated, CFTC-overseen product from a recognizable brand, backed by CME Group’s infrastructure. For someone who has been sitting out sports betting because their state does not have legal access, it is a real entry point. For someone already using a licensed sportsbook in a legal state, it is a complementary tool at best, and a curiosity at worst.