🔊 The $1.3 Billion Bet On The Future Of Sports Prediction Markets

IG Group Holdings, a UK-based global financial technology and trading platform, has agreed to acquire Underdog, a leading daily fantasy sports and prediction markets platform, for total consideration of up to approximately $1.3 billion.

The upfront consideration is based on an enterprise value of approximately $1.1 billion, with an earnout of approximately $200 million payable to Underdog's shareholders.

Founded in 2020 as a daily fantasy sports app, Underdog recently pivoted into prediction markets to capitalize on one of the fastest-growing categories in sports.

The acquisition gives IG Group a significant foothold in the US prediction markets space.

The deal marks one of the largest transactions yet in the prediction markets space and signals that consolidation is accelerating as established operators and financial trading firms compete for position in a category that is rapidly blurring the line between sports wagering and financial derivatives.

Why This Matters

Last week, Underdog announced the launch of its own federally licensed prediction market exchange.

This week, a global financial giant came calling.

When a publicly traded fintech company best known for spread betting and CFD trading spends $1.3 billion to acquire a daily fantasy sports app, it tells us a lot about where the biggest opportunities in sports are.

We’ve seen the prediction market space explode in the last 12 months.

Kalshi, Polymarket, Novig, and now Underdog have all demonstrated that there is a massive audience of mostly young fans that wants to trade on sports outcomes in a gamified format that feels more like investing than gambling.

And institutional money is taking notice.

Just look at this week's newsletter alone.

ProphetX raised $35 million.

Fanatics acquired exchange and clearing infrastructure to build out its own prediction platform.

The New York Mets signed the first-ever prediction market partnership with an MLB team.

Obviously, the category isn’t short of breaking news and updates.

And IG Group saw all of this and decided the fastest path into the US market was to buy the company that had already built the audience, the product, and the regulatory relationships.

For the sports investing world, it couldn’t be any clearer.

Prediction markets are becoming a core part of the sports business infrastructure, and the interest around them is only going to grow.

Underdog timed its transition perfectly.

And IG Group just spent $1.3 billion to make sure they didn't miss the wave.

• ProphetX Raised $35M. ProphetX, a sports-native prediction market and B2B platform, closed a $35 million funding round. The round was led by Parlay Capital and Data Point Capital, with participation from FDJ Ventures, Greenwave Ventures, Connexa Capital, Impellent Ventures, the Operating Group, and Sharp Alpha Advisors, as well as Chicago Trading Company Ventures, Belvedere Trading, principals at White Swan Data, principals at Consolidated Trading, and Ematiq. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate its product development, boost liquidity across markets, and scale its B2B platform and partnerships (more here).

• Onalabs Raises €9.3M+. Onalabs, a deep-tech company specializing in continuous, non-invasive health monitoring solutions, has closed a funding round of more than €9.3 million. The round includes participation from SETT, 1921 Ventures, nPrime, Reig Patrimonia, WA4STEAM and other strategic investors. The capital will be used to accelerate the industrialization of its ONASPORT device and expand its market reach, while advancing the clinical and regulatory validation of its ONAVITAL device (more here).

• Marquee Raises $4M. Marquee, an AI-powered sports analytics platform for soccer, has raised a $4 million Seed round, bringing its total funding to $6.5 million. Investors include Axel Springer SE, Welltech Ventures, Apex Capital, AnD Ventures, 97212 Ventures, and JCP. The company is currently live with more than 20 professional clubs and federations across multiple countries, including Premier League and Serie A clubs, as well as MLS organizations. The funding will support research and development while expanding hiring across AI, engineering, and data science teams (more here).

• Superstat Raises $3.5M. Superstat, an AI-powered basketball data and analytics company, has secured $3.5 million in Pre-Seed funding. The company, which specializes in AI-powered tools for talent scouting and sports analytics, announced the raise alongside plans to relocate its operations to the US. Blackbird Ventures led the round. The company plans to use the new capital to support its expansion into the US and further develop its AI platform designed to identify emerging athletic talent (more here).

• Fanatics Acquires Water Street Labs & CX Clearinghouse LP. Fanatics, the sports e-commerce and merchandising giant, has acquired Water Street Labs, a CFTC-registered designated contract market, and CX Clearinghouse, a registered derivatives clearing organization, from Nasdaq-listed BGC. This purchase gives Fanatics its own federally regulated exchange and clearing infrastructure to expand the Fanatics Markets prediction platform. Financial details were not disclosed (more here).

• Providence Equity Partners Invests In THE•TEAM. THE•TEAM, a global sports, music, and entertainment marketing and talent representation agency formerly known as Wasserman, secured an undisclosed strategic investment from Providence Equity Partners. The company intends to use the capital to fund the buyout transaction through which THE•TEAM will acquire 100% of founder Casey Wasserman’s remaining ownership stake in the enterprise, while maintaining capital reserves for future strategic acquisitions. Financial details were not disclosed (more here).

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• Ohio State Athletics & JPMorganChase Announce Partnership. Ohio State Athletics has announced a landmark partnership with JPMorganChase that will put a Chase jersey patch on uniforms across all 36 of the university’s men’s and women’s varsity sports programs. The agreement is JPMorganChase’s first in college athletics. It designates Chase as the official bank sponsor of Ohio State Athletics and is expected to provide resources to support Ohio State student-athletes through NIL opportunities and facilitate academic partnerships across the university (more here).

• SoFi & Notre Dame Athletics Announce Partnership. SoFi Technologies, the ‘everything app’ for digital financial services, announced a multi-year partnership with Notre Dame Athletics as the department's official financial services partner and the first brand to appear as a jersey patch on the Fighting Irish uniforms. SoFi will also establish a new annual $1.4 million fund to support Notre Dame Athletics' “4 for Forever” program, increasing access to scholarships, financial education, career development, and exclusive opportunities for student-athletes across the University's 26 varsity sports (more here).

• New York Mets & Novig Announce Partnership. Novig, one of the leading sports prediction markets, and the New York Mets announced a multi-year partnership naming Novig the Exclusive Official Prediction Market Partner of the New York Mets, the first partnership of its kind between an MLB franchise and a prediction market. Novig will be integrated across the Mets ecosystem through a comprehensive portfolio of in-ballpark, broadcast, digital and social activations. Fans will see Novig featured through prominent Citi Field signage, branded in-game moments, broadcast-visible branding and original digital content (more here).

• Al-Nassr FC & HUMAIN Announce Partnership. Al-Nassr FC Football Club and HUMAIN, a PIF company delivering full-stack artificial intelligence capabilities globally, announced that HUMAIN has been named the Club's Official Sponsor for the 2026–2027 season. The HUMAIN logo will be featured across the club's matchwear, and the landmark multi-faceted agreement also includes naming rights to Al Nassr's new training center and the integration of AI technology across football operations and fan engagement (more here).

• Most Valuable Promotions & Professional Fighters League Announce Merger. Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) is merging with the Professional Fighters League (PFL) to create a new mixed martial arts company. The combined entity will bring together world-class boxing, MMA, live events, athlete development, and worldwide content distribution under one organization. The combined company will operate under the MVP banner and will be led by Co-Founders and Board Members Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian, with John Martin serving as CEO and Board Member (more here).

• FIFA Scraps $20B World Cup Investment Plan. FIFA President Gianni Infantino has shelved his controversial plan to sell a stake in the World Cup to private investors. The proposal, called FIFA Forward Enterprise, would have created a commercial subsidiary valued at $20 billion, with 20% sold to private investors, including Thrive Eternal, a firm led by Joshua Kushner. UEFA threatened a full boycott of the World Cup if the plan moved forward, calling it "irresponsible and indefensible" and stating "the World Cup is not for sale." CONCACAF also rejected the plan, and one of Infantino's senior advisers, Carlos Cordeiro, resigned in protest. Infantino cited divisions among member associations as the reason for pulling the plug (more here).

• Bryce Harper & Andy Roddick Invest In NASCAR Team. Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson has added several strategic investors to his ownership group for Legacy Motor Club, including six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon, four-time IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti, two-time National League MVP Bryce Harper, Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan, former US Open champion Andy Roddick, 11-time surfing world champion Kelly Slater, and six-time MLB All-Star Chase Utley. The group also includes three-time Grammy Award winner Darius Rucker, Emmy Award-winning chef Guy Fieri, Away co-founder Jen Rubio, and CrossHarbor Capital co-founder Sam Byrne (more here).

• The Athletic Ranks Most Valuable College Football Programs. As private equity has begun to enter college athletics, the question of what teams are worth has risen to the forefront. The Athletic has attempted to place a price tag on just how valuable each Power 4 program would be if it were to be sold. For the second straight year, the publication has ranked what each team would command on the open market. These are theoretical sales prices, which are not the same as what teams are actually worth (more here).