Crypto.com rolls out prediction-only platform days before the Super Bowl
Global cryptocurrency exchange and trading services company Crypto.com will launch a standalone prediction markets platform days before the Super Bowl, expanding its push into federally regulated event-based contracts, according to Bloomberg.
The company said the new product, branded OG, was created in response to rapid growth in its predictions business.
Crypto.com Co-Founder and CCEO Kris Marszalek said activity on event contracts had increased 40-fold on a week-over-week basis over the past six months, prompting the need for a dedicated platform.
OG was structured as a predictions-only exchange, separating event contracts from Crypto.com’s broader trading services.
Nick Lundgren, OG CEO, said the platform would also allow leveraged and margin trading on prediction contracts. Trading, clearing and settlement continued to be handled through Crypto.com’s existing infrastructure, which was registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Prediction market platforms allowed users to trade contracts tied to the outcomes of future events, including sports, elections and economic indicators. The sector expanded sharply during 2025, driven largely by demand for sports-related contracts.
While American football remained a short-term focus around the Super Bowl and the college basketball postseason, Crypto.com said OG also would list contracts linked to entertainment, politics and public companies.
The company said OG would be headquartered in the US and initially focused on domestic customers as regulatory scrutiny of prediction markets continued to intensify.
Last month, High Roller Technologies announced its plans to enter into regulated US prediction markets, through offering Crypto.com’s markets on its platform.
Abi Bray brings strong researching skills to the forefront of all of her writing, whether it’s the newest slots, industry trends or the ever changing legislation across the U.S, Asia and Australia, she maintains a keen eye for detail and a passion for reporting.
Verticals:
Sectors:
Topics:
Dig Deeper
Related stories
2025/01/16: Crypto.com snubs CFTC suspension of Super Bowl futures exchange contracts
2025/11/17: Fanatics reportedly in prediction market talks with Crypto.com
2026/02/02: Event contracts on Super Bowl ads raise concerns about insider trading
2026/02/03: New York AG warns about prediction markets ahead of Super Bowl
2025/01/16: Crypto.com snubs CFTC suspension of Super Bowl futures exchange contracts
2025/11/17: Fanatics reportedly in prediction market talks with Crypto.com
2026/02/02: Event contracts on Super Bowl ads raise concerns about insider trading
2026/02/03: New York AG warns about prediction markets ahead of Super Bowl
The Backstory
Why a predictions-only bet now
Crypto.com’s decision to carve out a standalone predictions exchange lands days before the Super Bowl, a peak moment for event-based contracts that blend sports fandom with speculative trading. The company says user demand surged, with activity rising fortyfold week over week in recent months, prompting the new platform to segregate prediction contracts from its broader crypto services. The move builds on a broader trend that accelerated through 2025, when sports-linked markets became a gateway for mainstream users to try prediction products. While the initial slate centers on American football and March college basketball, Crypto.com signaled a wider mix spanning entertainment, politics and corporate outcomes. The pitch: a dedicated venue with leverage and margin features for traders, while clearing and settlement still ride on infrastructure registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The timing is strategic and fraught. Super Bowl week concentrates liquidity and attention, making it the most valuable window to seed new markets and attract repeat users. It also magnifies regulatory risk. Prediction markets sit at the intersection of gambling, commodities law and consumer protection, and the boundaries are being rewritten in real time. Crypto.com says OG will be headquartered in the United States and focus on domestic users, a signal it aims to operate within federal guardrails rather than the offshore gray zone that has long defined parts of the sector. Yet the rules are not settled, and the federal stance has already hardened in some corners.
A clash with Washington sets the tone
Just weeks after launching U.S.-only markets on Dec. 23, Crypto.com ran straight into a federal stop sign. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered the company to suspend Super Bowl futures exchange contracts pending a legality review. Rather than pause, Crypto.com kept the markets live, arguing the contracts comply with law and pointing to recent court decisions and a pending rule proposal at the agency. In a pointed statement, the firm criticized outgoing leadership and said it would continue at least until after the presidential inauguration.
The standoff, detailed in Crypto.com snubs CFTC suspension of Super Bowl futures exchange contracts, underscores how unsettled the federal framework remains. The CFTC has long wrestled with whether certain event contracts are hedging tools or off-exchange betting. As staff turns over with a new administration, market operators are testing boundaries. Crypto.com’s bet is that building a compliant-looking exchange architecture now will position it well if the agency ultimately codifies broader permissions for event-based derivatives. The risk is that an adverse ruling or enforcement action forces a retreat, sowing confusion among users and partners.
States sharpen their knives
Even if federal rules evolve, state officials are moving faster. On Feb. 2, New York Attorney General Letitia James warned residents about prediction platforms ahead of the Super Bowl, highlighting consumer risks and gaps in oversight by the state’s Gaming Commission. Lawmakers in Albany introduced bills that would either require licenses and sportsbook-style protections or ban many event contracts outright, including specific sports and political markets. The warning and legislative push, covered in New York AG warns about prediction markets ahead of Super Bowl, mirror a broader backlash as states assess whether these products are financial instruments or gambling by another name.
Other states are acting through courts. A Nevada judge issued a temporary restraining order limiting Polymarket’s access to residents during Super Bowl week, a signal that even crypto-native prediction operators face traditional gaming tests where regulators see consumer harm. For a national platform like Crypto.com’s OG, fragmented state responses create operational friction: geofencing, disclosure tweaks and market-by-market eligibility. They also affect liquidity, the lifeblood of prediction markets, by splintering user pools across jurisdictions with different rules.
Marketing tailwinds stoke demand
The rise of prediction markets is not happening in a vacuum. Sports media and betting operators are building tighter links between live games, data and real-time offers, feeding an appetite for in-game engagement. FanDuel Sports Network’s new partnership with Genius Sports to deploy an “intelligent content” platform across more than 300 NBA games and WNBA coverage shows how data-driven, moment-based advertising is moving from pilot to scale. The collaboration, described in Genius Sports rolls out intelligent content platform with FanDuel Sports Network, gives brands sponsorable moments like shot probability or player ID in real time across linear, digital and streaming channels.
For prediction markets, that marketing stack is a demand engine. The more broadcasts surface probabilities and micro-moments, the more consumers get used to tying opinions to outcomes. That can tip new users into yes-or-no markets that feel adjacent to props and parlays. It also intensifies scrutiny: if ads or on-screen prompts blur lines between entertainment and speculative products, regulators will press for stricter disclosures and protections.
Consumer protection is the hinge
Regulators are already calling out practices they see as unfair or risky, with Canada’s most mature provincial market offering a case study. Ontario’s Alcohol and Gaming Commission fined Casino Days CA$54,000 for a welcome bonus that required deposits of CA$2,000 and CA$70,000 in wagering within seven days to unlock the full offer, with key terms buried across multiple links. The action, outlined in AGCO fines Casino Days CA$54,000 for deceptive bonus practices, emphasized that promotions must be attainable and not induce high-risk behavior. Ontario’s standards, set out by the regulator, favor clear terms and tools that help players stay within limits.
Behavioral risk is front and center in the run-up to major events. The Responsible Gambling Council found nearly half of Ontarians who plan to watch the Super Bowl expect to bet, and more than a third said they wagered more than they could afford in the past year. Many believe sports knowledge confers an edge, a classic “illusion of control” that can spur overconfidence. The findings are detailed in Responsible Gambling Council highlights problem gambling ahead of Super Bowl, which also notes that one third of prospective sportsbook users do not plan to use any responsible gambling features. For prediction markets that frame outcomes in binary, confidence can be especially seductive, making safeguards like spend limits, cooling-off periods and prominent odds education pivotal.
The stakes for operators and regulators
Crypto.com is wagering that a purpose-built exchange, backed by CFTC-registered infrastructure and launched when attention is highest, will establish first-mover advantage as event contracts go mainstream. Its defiance of a CFTC suspension order, however, raises the odds of a sharper regulatory response that could reshape which events are tradable and under what conditions. States are signaling they will not wait for Washington, threatening a map of conflicting rules that sap liquidity and complicate compliance.
At the same time, the commercial momentum behind real-time sports engagement is accelerating. As broadcasters and data firms weave probabilities into live programming, the addressable audience for predictions will grow. That amplifies the consumer protection stakes. Ontario’s enforcement and the Responsible Gambling Council’s survey offer a template: clear disclosures, realistic promotions and widely used safety tools. Whether U.S. authorities steer prediction markets toward that model or push them closer to traditional gaming bans will determine how durable this Super Bowl-era surge proves to be.
