Derivatives marketplace CME Group and gaming company FanDuel announced a new partnership, spawning an events platform.
Building on CME Group’s background in financial products and FanDuel’s customer base in the gambling space, the platform will offer fully-funded, event-based contracts with defined risk. Customers will be able to wager on a variety of markets on simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ bets, starting from as low as $1.
The products are expected to launch later this year, featuring market-based benchmarks like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100, prices of oil and gas, gold, cryptocurrencies, and other key economic indicators, such as GDP and CPI. There’s also a promise of further markets to be determined in the coming months, with more coming after launch as well.
“Individual investors are increasingly sophisticated and continually pursuing new financial opportunities,” said Terry Duffy, CME Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “To meet this demand, we have created this innovative partnership, which will operate a non-clearing FCM. Together, our event-based products will appeal to the growing public interest in markets, and we will provide education to attract a new generation of potential traders not active in derivatives today.”
FanDuel seeking partnerships throughout the gaming space
To bring the platform to customers, the two companies will create a new joint venture together, operating a non-clearing futures commission merchant (FCM) that will facilitate access to these event-based contracts via FanDuel, which was recently sold to gaming giant Flutter.
“Partnering with CME Group will unlock our ability to bring even more new and engaging products to FanDuel’s fast-growing customer base,” said Amy Howe, CEO of FanDuel Group. “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.
“We are excited to be partnering with CME Group to design new and engaging products, combining innovation with best-in-class regulatory compliance and consumer protections.”
This wouldn’t be the only partnership FanDuel is rumoured to be pursuing, with news swirling about a potential partnership with predictions market Kalshi.
Featured image: CME Group/FanDuel