Blurred lines
Finance, betting and crypto converge in perpetuals
OSB operators could be “fast followers” as perps use cases grow, suggests BofA.
In +More: FanDuel undergoes third round of job cuts, says report.
Sportradar and Kalshi sign a global partnership for data.
Venture playground: Regen adds names to the cap table.
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Perpetual motion
I can’t stop the feelin’: Kalshi did more than $100m in volume on perpetual trading within the first 24 hours of launch after the CFTC approved its perpetual futures product in late May, according to the analysts at Bank of America.
The team suggested the immediate success of Kalshi’s ‘perps’ product points to its popularity with retail traders.
“If perps become popular domestically, we think OSB operators could be fast followers to the market,” they added.
It’s in the air, it’s in my blood: While the current use cases for perps lie in the crypto and finance markets, the BofA team argued there are also “logical use cases for sports including perpetuals on athletes, teams and cities” as “speculation culture and its corresponding TAM” continues to grow.
“We think the growth in offshore markets demonstrates retail users like perps as a speculative tool,” they added.
The BofA team highlighted Sensor Tower data that points to DraftKings’ users “top personas” being gamblers, sports fans and crypto traders.
Likewise, Robinhood’s are crypto traders and gamblers.
I can’t take my eyes up off it, movin’ so phenomenally: The gamification of existing crypto trading is already a thing. BofA cited the 5-minute crypto up/down markets on DraftKings Predictions, and DK Replay, which allows users to bet on where a pitch will land in the batter’s box in an anonymized historical at bat.
They noted that Kalshi’s 15-minute up/down markets are gaining a lot of traction and are already generating ~$325m in volume per week.
While fees are low at an average of 1%, BofA estimates Kalshi is generating ~$175m in annualized revenues from these markets alone.
Moreover, “it seems like DraftKings tests in 5-minute Bitcoin markets were successful,” nearly quadrupling run-rate crypto volume on Nadex.
“We think we could see even shorter duration up/down markets as PM competition ramps,” BofA added.
They argued that this style of innovation would “accelerate from here and could include even shorter crypto up/down markets, crash-style games on prediction markets, and expansion of digital historical races or at bats.”
I fly so high, no ceilin’: In an SEC filing yesterday, DraftKings gave some clue as to the momentum it was seeing with its prediction product, saying that annualized consumer volume increased 24% MoM in May to $1.3bn and that annualized total volume traded increased 34% MoM to $3.1bn.
The company’s share price rose 11% on the release as investors warmed to the early indications of prediction markets success.
The way we rock it: The BofA team provided a brief gloss on the perps market, pointing out that at present it exists entirely offshore, with the biggest providers being Binance and Hyperliquid.
A perpetual future is a derivatives contract that allows traders to take a levered directional view on an asset’s price without owning the underlying asset.
Perpetuals never expire and users can hold positions indefinitely.
Because there is no maturity, venues employ a funding-rate mechanism to keep perp prices anchored to the spot price.
And under the lights when everything goes: The move to bring perps into the regulated space has already begun with the CFTC ruling in late May, allowing Kalshi to be the first exchange to offer perps.
CEO Tarek Mansour said at the time of the launch that perps are “the next chapter” for his company.
“We’ve been building Kalshi toward a vision that every important question about the world should have a market.”
Nowhere to hide when I’m gettin’ you close: BofA noted that while crypto is the most popular perps product, both commodities and stocks were gaining in popularity. But they also believe the rulemaking around the product “could be an important development” for sports event contract operators.
As they expand their offerings beyond prediction markets, “we think perpetuals on athletes, teams and sports cities could all be on product roadmaps.”
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+More
FanDuel has cut a “few hundred jobs” in its third round of layoffs inside a year, according to Front Office Sports. Laid-off staff told the news site that the job cuts were a response to prediction market competition, an AI push and economic uncertainty, with one saying the company had been playing catch-up since launching its own contracts platform in December. The cuts follow November’s round, the FanDuel TV wind-down and CEO Amy Howe’s departure.
Melco Resorts has strengthened its liquidity position by extending the maturity of its $1.94bn revolving credit facility by four years to June 2031 and adding a new $822m incremental facility. The amendment increases total borrowing capacity under its 2020 Bank of China-led credit facilities to $2.77bn.
Sportradar x Kalshi
Landmark ahoy! Sportradar has signed what it called a “landmark” multiyear global agreement with Kalshi, becoming the official data and solutions provider to the prediction market operator and spanning premium content across the MLB, NHL, MLS and UFC.
The deal bundles together live odds, fan-engagement tools, customer-acquisition services and sports-integrity products.
Under the terms of the arrangement, Sportradar can also now contract directly with Kalshi’s brokers and market makers.
Jefferies said this could potentially be the bigger opportunity,
Echo Beach: Sportradar CEO Carsten Koerl said of the deal that prediction markets were a “compelling growth engine for the global sports ecosystem.” He noted the Kalshi tie-up was “a critical first step,” adding that the company looked forward to working with other participants “as the landscape matures.”
Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour pointed to faster trade settlement from official league data and a joint integrity-monitoring programme.
The integrity element echoes the framework that leagues and the CFTC have pushed for through recent formal memoranda.
Economy of effort: No financial terms were disclosed, but Citizens suggested the agreement is structured around a revenue-sharing arrangement rather than a fixed-fee model, similar to OSB economics in the US.
“The economics are attractive and carry higher take rates than traditional online sports betting given the need for the critical infrastructure,” Citizens added.
Jefferies, however, suggested the agreement was “struck at a premium to existing OSB economics,” implying that any share shift from OSB toward prediction markets would be incrementally positive for Sportradar.
Shifting sands: Mark Locke, CEO at rival sports data and services provider Genius Sports, told E+M last month that “the next stage” in the evolution of prediction markets would be “increased demand for official sports data.”
A note from B. Riley earlier this week said the “narrative is shifting” from being a perceived threat to being a monetization opportunity.
The analysts cited recent moves including the info-sharing MOUs signed by MLB and the NHL with the CFTC.
Sports.com Predict
SEGG Media has launched Sports.com Predict, opening early access to the first 10,000 eligible waitlist users following a successful beta test. The real-time sports prediction market platform will be rolled out in phases ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The company said the launch marks the transition from development to live user acquisition and engagement as it scales the platform globally.
E+M PRO
Codere Online earnings debrief
Riding the wave: A record quarter put the Spain and LatAm operator firmly into profit, yet CEO Aviv Sher is sitting on his guidance. He talks to Earnings+More about margin tailwinds where he is wary of making long-term predictions, the World Cup acquisition window, the optimization taking place in Mexico, Spain’s surprise market growth, the €56m cash question and the AI ‘storm’ reshaping the cost base.
See yesterday’s Earnings Debrief edition (PRO subs only).
Last resorts
Five-Ho: Pansy Ho disposed of the remainder of her holdings in MGM Resorts in early June as part of a process that saw the chair of MGM China sell down her entire 1.2% holding for ~$140m.
According to filings with the Hong Kong stock exchange, Ho offloaded the stake over the space of five separate sales.
Fulltime Diller: The news of the final sale comes in the wake of Barry Diller’s approach to buy MGM Resorts, a deal, which if consummated, analysts believe could see the sale of the MGM China business, which is a joint venture between MGM and Ho.
MGM Resorts holds a controlling 56% stake in MGM China while Ho controls 22.5%.
Analysts at Seaport said MGM China “becomes an interesting piece of the puzzle.” They noted the business has “significantly outperformed” the Macau market in the past few years and had retained more market share than they expected.
“Should an MGM deal be consummated, we believe there is some chance that [Diller’s] People Inc. may look to divest ownership in MGM China,” they added.
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Venture playground
Regen adds muscle
Names on the board: Regen, the responsible gaming fintech startup backed by Underdog’s GuardDog innovation fund, has strengthened its advisory bench with the addition of industry veterans Jonathan Michaels and Benjie Cherniak as strategic advisors and investors.
The appointments represent another milestone for the Chicago-based company following the investment announced earlier this year by GuardDog.
At the time, Regen attracted attention for its novel approach to player protection, automatically directing a percentage of sportsbook, fantasy sports and prediction market activity into savings accounts rather than relying on traditional intervention tools.
Wellbeing: Founded by Daniel Prior and Ben Bleier in 2025, Regen has sought to reposition responsible gaming around long-term financial wellness. Users link gaming accounts and choose a savings rate, with funds automatically moved into an FDIC-insured wallet from every entry, win or loss.
The platform launched through an integration with Underdog and has been promoted as a responsible play resource across the operator’s fantasy sports and prediction market ecosystem.
Validation: The addition of Michaels, a former AGA and Sightline Payments executive, and Cherniak, a longtime investor and advisor whose previous portfolio companies include OddsJam and ZeroFlucs, provides further industry validation of Regen’s thesis.
Securing both the capital and expertise of two well-known industry figures suggests growing support for responsible gaming tools that move beyond deposit limits and self-exclusion toward proactive savings and financial resilience.
In focus – OddsBlaze
Who are you? OddsBlaze was founded by Matthew Paulton, who previously played a part in the creation of the API that powers OddsJam. “Now I am doing my own thing,” he says. The British Columbia-based company was launched in August 2025.
What’s the big idea? Paulton says OddsBlaze offers a real-time sports-betting API with odds data from over 30 sportsbooks in the US, including additional data such as SGP pricing and historical odds.
“Our odds data has sub-second latency, meaning it updates on average less than 1 second after the sportsbook updates,” he tells E+M.
“Our aim is to provide the world’s fastest odds data at reasonable pricing, starting as low as $29 per month.”
KPIs: Paulton says that it attracted over 100 active subscribers in the first eight months, including many large-enterprise clients in the sports-betting industry.
Funding backgrounder: “I bootstrapped this myself,” Paulton proclaims.
Growth company news
Huddle has launched a new soccer pricing product ahead of the FIFA World Cup, extending its trading and predictive modeling expertise beyond US sports. The service offers core soccer markets, player props and fully combinable same-game parlays, with features including cashout functionality and reduced downtime. Huddle said the product combines automated pricing engines with human trading expertise to help operators better manage risk, improve uptime and capitalize on growing demand for player-centric betting markets globally.
The P2P football prediction app LEBOM has launched LEBOM ’26, a new World Cup product designed to turn the traditional tournament sweepstake into a longer-lasting, social-betting experience. The company said the launch follows its most successful season to date, with over 100,000 players, and marks a major step in the brand’s ambition to make low-stakes, peer-to-peer football betting more social, transparent and entertainment-led.
Upcoming earnings
Jun 16: Penn Entertainment AGM
Jul 17: Evolution
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