Robinhood Suspends Super Bowl Bets After CFTC Request
Date: 2025-02-06 Author: Henry Casey Categories: BUSINESS
Robinhood has decided to stop offering a new product it launched just a day earlier in partnership with Kalshi. The new tool allowed customers to bet on the winner of the Philadelphia Eagles vs. Kansas City Chiefs Finals on February 9. The company said that about 1% of users had access to the product, some of whom had already made trades.
“We are extremely disappointed by this situation, especially given that we have been in regular discussions with the CFTC regarding this product,” Robinhood said.
The company began offering contracts on events in October, starting with bets on the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. This was made possible after Kalshi won a court victory over the CFTC, which allowed the platform to offer such contracts to American users.
Meanwhile, the regulator has initiated an investigation not only into Kalshi, but also into one of the largest centralized crypto exchanges, Crypto.com. The agency is investigating whether their Super Bowl contracts comply with the requirements of the derivatives market.
Crypto.com said it has no plans to suspend trading despite the investigation. Moreover, even if the CFTC decides to ban these contracts, it will only be possible to do so after the investigation is completed, which is given up to 90 days. By that time, the Super Bowl will have already passed, but the regulator may block such products in the future.
The difference between event contracts and traditional bets is that the odds are formed based on the opinions of market participants, and are not set by a bookmaker.
