Robinhood Returns to Sports Event Contracts with March Madness Launch
Robinhood is relaunching its sports event contract trading service, offering prediction markets for March Madness tournament games through its app to 25 million customers. This marks the company's return after briefly offering Super Bowl contracts in February 2025.
Through a partnership with KalshiEX LLC, a CFTC-regulated exchange, users can purchase contracts for NCAA basketball tournament matchups. Correct predictions will pay out $1 per contract, and users can close positions before game completion. Trading hours will run from 8 a.m. to 3 a.m. daily.
March Madness basketball game action
"We believe in the power of prediction markets and think they play an important role at the intersection of news, economics, politics, sports, and culture," said JB Mackenzie, VP & GM of Futures and International at Robinhood.
Previous Trading History:
- February 3, 2025: Launched Super Bowl event contracts through Kalshi partnership
- February 4, 2025: Ceased operations after CFTC request to stop customer access
- March 2025: Returning with expanded NCAA tournament coverage
The new prediction markets hub will be available nationwide, offering contracts for both men's and women's NCAA tournament games, including championship matches.
This relaunch comes despite Robinhood's previous disappointment with the CFTC's intervention in their Super Bowl offering, where the company had maintained regular communication about their plans and advocated for balanced regulation in futures and derivatives markets.