The sports betting talk comes after Robinhood’s launch of event contracts ahead of the 2024 presidential election, which saw strong traction. Robinhood said more than 400 million contracts were traded by over 500,000 Robinhood users.
Prediction markets, which let participants buy and sell contracts to each other, are different than sportsbooks that offer betting odds against the house. Robinhood would need to get approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) before it would be allowed to offer traditional sportsbook betting odds.
In a CNBC interview on “Squawk Box” Thursday morning, Tenev clarified his comments on sports betting. The Robinhood CEO explained that he believes his comments were “taken a little bit out of context,” although he didn’t rule out a swift move into the space.
“I wouldn’t expect us to launch sports betting soon. But I also wouldn’t rule it out,” Tenev said.