Fans of sports betting and financial trading are likely to be interested in event trading, which can be seen as a marriage between the two activities. Event trading lets people buy contracts related to whether or not an event will take place, and it has been steadily growing in popularity in the United States over the last couple of years.
Not exactly sports betting, not entirely financial trading and not just a prediction market, what is event trading? For fans of any of the abovementioned activities, event trading might be something worth investigating. While digital versions of event trading are relatively new, event trading, particularly betting on political events, has a record that goes back centuries. The modern event trading, typically done digitally through the Fanatics Markets app and other such platforms, has only started to gain popularity in the last couple of years, but has a steady amount of growing interest associated with it.
Let’s take a closer look at what exactly event trading is, how platforms that provide the service work and some reasons why it is growing in popularity.
What Exactly is Event Trading?
To put it simply, event trading is the buying and selling of contracts based on real-world events and their outcomes. They don’t work in the same way as traditional odds bets do; instead, you trade a contract for yes or no, depending on what you think is most likely, and the price of those contracts fluctuates depending on what the broader market thinks will happen.
Contracts can involve just about any event in the world that can be broken down into a simple yes/no question, like:
- Will this movie win a certain award?
- Will this politician win an election?
- Will this sports team bring home a win?
- Will the price of a product rise by a certain percentage?
The yes/no contracts for event trading will go up and down in price as information related to the event comes out, and in relation to what the market believes will happen. These contracts can be bought and sold at any time prior to the event completing, meaning that event traders can effectively ‘cash out’ if they change their minds or get cold feet. The idea is that although event trading is quite close to betting, engaging in it can feel a lot closer to a financial market than a traditional betting platform.
Fanatics Markets: A Case Study in Event Trading
As an example to help you understand what exactly event trading is, let’s examine one of the biggest event trading, or prediction market, platforms in the United States. Fanatics markets launched in late 2025, and is a prediction market platform that lets users buy event contracts for real-world events. Like most other prediction markets or event trading platforms, the price of a contract shifts depending on the supply and demand, which means that the market itself determines the probability of an outcome, instead of a bookmaker.
Where is Fanatics Markets Available?
Fanatics Markets is currently available across 24 states and territories in the United States, including some of the bigger states like Texas, California, Florida and Oregon. Part of the appeal of services like those offered by Fanatics Markets is that they are able to operate in jurisdictions where traditional sports betting is unavailable.
How is Fanatics Markets Regulated?
Fanatics Markets is partly able to offer its services thanks to how it is structured. The way it is operated means that it falls under regulations associated with US financial derivatives, rather than being seen as a traditional sportsbook and being at the mercy of state gambling laws. Fanatics Markets has a partnership with Crypto.com and has also acquired Paragon Global Markets, both of which allow it to present its contracts as derivative products, rather than wagers. Its operations falling under federal financial regulation are crucial to its ability to serve customers in states where traditional gambling and sports betting remain illegal.
Why is Fanatics Markets Important for Event Trading?
The entry of Fanatics into the event trading and prediction markets niche is a very important thing. While there had previously been some smaller companies and platforms operating in this market, none of them had the clout and reach that a giant in the sports entertainment field like Fanatics does.
Long-time fans of other Fanatics content have been introduced to the idea of event trading overnight, bringing the platform a ready-made and relatively large audience. The Chief Executive Officer of Fanatics Betting and Gaming, Matt King, stated that “With Fanatics Markets, we’re giving fans a safe, and intuitive way to engage with the moments that move sports and culture, and to pick a side.”
What Sorts of Events Are Typically Popular for Event Trading?
A big draw for many people for event trading is that there is such a wide range of things that can be traded. More traditional betting is typically restricted to just sports, but event trading can feasibly be used for any event that can be broken down into a yes/no question.
Some popular types of events for trading include:
Sports
While a draw for event trading is that sports are not the only thing that can be traded, people still do enjoy trading on events related to sports. Some typical sports events contracts would be things like:
- The winner of a certain match.
- The winner of a certain league or championship.
- Players crossing milestones related to performance or records.
These sports-based contracts are typically very easy to understand, especially for sports fans who already engage in all of the minutiae of sports statistics related to their favorite teams and players.
Politics
One of the oldest forms of event trading, it has seen a surge in popularity recently. Some common political event trading contracts can include:
- Results of elections.
- Decisions made in office.
- Changes in leadership.
- Outcomes of broader political discussions.
Economic
Many event trading platforms have begun including a wider range of economic and financial events, such as:
- Reports on inflation.
- Milestones in the stock market.
- Data about employment and other economic figures.
- Decisions about interest rates.
Culture
Events tied to the broader entertainment culture have begun to see more and more popularity as well. These contracts can include things like:
- Chart rankings for music.
- Launches of entertainment products.
- Winners of awards.
- Results for TV shows.
The inclusion of so many different sorts of events as potential contracts helps event trading to reach a broad audience, including those more interested in movie awards and not typically interested in sports.
Final Thoughts
Event trading is likely to appeal to people who are or have been interested in betting, financial trading or prediction markets. It isn’t exactly like any of those things, but it is similar to them all. With such a broad range of events available for traders to engage with, just about anyone is likely to be able to find a contract that they find interesting.
Event trading is growing in popularity in part thanks to the rise of platforms like Fanatics Markets, but also due to the regulatory environment of the regions in which it exists and the broad range of options and flexibility it offers should not be ignored as a driving factor behind that popularity.
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