First reported by The willbetrusty curlyClosing Line, the registration shows the entity, officially called Gus II LLC, registered with the US derivatives self-regulatory organisation on 30 July 2024.

DraftKings Predict, which is a pending member of the NFA, lists DraftKings current head office and telephone number on its page.

Several leading executives are also listed involved with the entity, including chief executive Jason Robins as an indirect owner and co-founder Paul Liberman described as the CEO of DraftKings Predict.

What is DraftKings Predict?

The registration could potentially be the vehicle the group would use to enter the burgeoning prediction markets space, which has seen business interest surge after the Trump administration signalled it would take a laissez faire approach to regulating the vertical.

This has included the appointment of Brian Quintenz, previously a board member of prediction market Kalshi, to lead the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The US derivatives regulator has historically been sceptical of prediction markets and sought to clamp down on political betting and sports event contracts.

During the DFS and sports betting giant’s earnings call last month, CEO Jason Robins said the company was interested in the space but was still waiting for regulatory clarity.

He said: “It’s certainly something that we have keen interest in seeing how it plays out.

“So, I think there’s some, in the next couple of months, 60 days or so, there’s going to be a CFTC ruling and all sorts of other things, so I think we’ll know a lot more over the next few months.”

Sports event contracts, which Crypto.com and Robinhood, in partnership with Kalshi, have been highlighted as a potentially large new market by some observers.

This is because the federal regulatory architecture would allow operators to bypass state legislators to directly offer bets to residents in all 50 states.   

However, the rosy view of the future here was thrown into question by the Nevada Gaming Control Board this month.

The gaming regulator became the first in the US to send a cease-and-desist letter to a prediction market when last week it challenged the legality of Kalshi’s event-based contracts.