iGaming Weekly Recap (November 10-16, 2025): Prediction Markets’ FOMO

🏈 Week in Sports Betting

The week in the world of sports wagering was marked by serious legal action and a response from Major League Baseball (MLB) to a growing game-fixing scandal.

• Cleveland Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz pleaded not guilty on November 12th in a Brooklyn federal court to four felony charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, stemming from an alleged pitch-fixing and betting scheme.

• Federal prosecutors claim Ortiz and fellow Guardians pitcher Emmanuel Clase manipulated “prop bets”, for instance, by intentionally throwing the first pitch of an inning as a “ball”, in exchange for cash.

• In response to the scandal, MLB announced immediate safeguards, collaborating with its sports betting partners to limit micro-bets (wagers at the pitch level) to $200 and banning their inclusion in parlay bets.

In the business and public perception sphere, two key developments were noted:

• Prime Sportsbook, which bills itself as “America’s Sharpest Bookmaker,” filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in mid-November. The move is viewed as a strategic “reset” to reorganize costs ahead of a planned acquisition by technology provider Plannatech, though the company guaranteed that customer funds remain 100% secure.

• Meanwhile, DraftKings is preparing for the strategic launch of a Spanish-language version of its wagering platform to maximize reach among the rapidly growing U.S. Hispanic population before the 2026 World Cup.

Additionally, a Quinnipiac University poll revealed that 64% of American adults believe the rise of legal sports betting has led to increased illegal activity by players and coaches. Furthermore, one-third (33%) suspect that NBA coaches and players frequently engage in actions intended to influence game outcomes for betting purposes.

📈 Week in Prediction Markets

One of the key pieces of news this week is that FanDuel and DraftKings were forced to withdraw from Nevada. The Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) deemed the intent to offer sports event contracts to be “unlawful activity” or “bookmaking.” As a result, FanDuel voluntarily surrendered its Nevada license, and DraftKings withdrew its application.

• Furthermore, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) issued a stern warning, prohibiting its licensed operators from offering or directing customers to sports event contracts within the state, threatening license revocation for non-compliance.

• Both Nevada and Massachusetts classify these products as unlicensed gambling, contrary to operator claims that they fall under federal CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) regulation. These actions were taken in response to the two largest sports betting operators’ expansion into the prediction markets space.

FanDuel confirmed plans to launch its new “FanDuel Predicts“ app in December 2025. This app, created through a strategic alliance with CME Group, is slated to offer contracts on non-financial markets (such as the S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, oil, or gold) and sports contracts, which will be available in states without legalized online sports betting. DraftKings had previously announced its own plans in this area.

• Concurrently, the Polymarket platform returned to the U.S. market after a three-year hiatus, running beta tests of its prediction platform, made possible by acquiring a CFTC-licensed entity.

• ProphetX, a platform previously operating under a promotional sweepstakes model, announced its intention to fully transition to a CFTC-regulated prediction markets exchange, seeking dual registration as a Designated Contract Market (DCM) and a Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO).

Key partnerships strengthened the position of prediction markets in the sports and entertainment sector:

• Polymarket entered a multi-year strategic agreement with PrizePicks, aiming to integrate CFTC-regulated event contracts directly into the PrizePicks app.

• Polymarket was also named the Official and Exclusive Prediction Market Partner for UFC and Zuffa Boxing (part of TKO Group Holdings, Inc.).

In a way, summarizing the week, the CEO of Gambling.com Group recognized prediction markets as an “additional new category“ for growth in the U.S. The company is poised to capitalize on the uptrend in this space through its data services division, OpticOdds.

💰 Week in Financials

With earnings season in full swing, key companies provided investors and the public with updates on their financial health.

• Aristocrat Leisure Limited reported solid double-digit growth for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25), increasing normalized revenue by 11.0% to $6.3 billion and normalized EBITDA by 15.6%. This result was driven primarily by its North America gaming segment and the Interactive segment, where iLottery operations maintained a 72% market share of U.S. wagering.

• Bragg Gaming Group also showed a 2% increase in total revenue to €26.8 million, with growth excluding the Dutch market hitting approximately 20%. Bragg’s largest growth was seen in strategic markets like the U.S. (+86% year-over-year) and Brazil (+80% year-over-year).

• Gambling.com Group achieved record revenue of $39.0 million (+21% Y/Y), fueled by dynamic growth in sports data services revenue (OpticOdds), which surged 304% to $9.2 million, while core marketing services revenue remained flat.

Several companies took drastic strategic steps aimed at restructuring operations and focusing on higher margins:

• Bally’s Corporation reported Q3 2025 revenue of $663.7 million (+5.4%). The company executed a key sale of its international interactive operations to Intralot S.A. for €2.7 billion, allowing Bally’s to become the majority stakeholder in Intralot (58%) and allocate $1.3 billion toward debt reduction.

• In contrast, PENN Entertainment reported a significant Q3 2025 net loss of ($865.1 million), largely due to an $825.0 million asset write-down in the interactive segment. In response, PENN announced a strategic shift to an “iCasino forward” model, ending its partnership with ESPN Bet and concentrating on the iCasino segment, which achieved the highest quarterly revenue in the company’s history, growing by nearly 40% year-over-year.

Profitability and overall quarterly performance were often burdened by external challenges or transformation costs:

• FanDuel, the U.S. segment of Flutter Entertainment, reported revenue of $1.368 billion (+9%) in Q3 2025, with strong growth (44%) in the iGaming (online casino) segment offsetting a 5% decline in Sportsbook revenue. Despite revenue growth, FanDuel’s adjusted EBITDA fell 12% to $51 million, mainly due to the increase in state gaming tax costs in key jurisdictions like Illinois and New Jersey.

• Better Collective reported a 4% decline in total revenue (to €78 million), attributed to a record-low sports win margin that reduced revenue by €10 million compared to the previous year.

• In contrast to these challenges, High Roller Technologies achieved its first net profit as a public company ($3.667 million) in Q3 2025, despite a 16% drop in revenue, a result of disciplined management of operating costs, which were reduced by 22%.

🏛️ Week in Legislation

• In Florida, the House of Representatives is fast-tracking House Bill 189 (HB 189), which aims to increase penalties for sports betting corruption, establishing a third-degree felony for knowingly wagering on fixed sporting events. HB 189 also seeks to formally authorize and define paid fantasy sports contests while prohibiting their outcome from relying on the final game score or point spread.

• Meanwhile, in New York, Assembly Bill 9251 (A9251), known as the ORACLE Act, is under consideration. This bill would introduce comprehensive regulations and prohibit most prediction market wagering. This ban would cover political markets, contracts related to disasters or deaths, and most bets tied to outcomes within specific sporting events (prop betting). The bill also imposes stringent consumer protection measures (e.g., minimum age of 21, credit card ban) and seeks to restrict the participation of licensed bookmakers in this market segment.

Another key theme was the battle over finances and legalization:

• In Pennsylvania, facing a budget deficit exceeding $3 billion, lawmakers are considering raising taxes on online sports betting and iGaming, a goal being pursued for the first time for online casinos. The coalition of bookmakers (SportsBetting Alliance, SBA) reacted with immediate and coordinated opposition, dedicating at least $10 million to a new political committee (PAC) to oppose lawmakers supporting the hike. An alternative revenue option is the regulation and taxation of an estimated 40,000 currently unregulated skill-based gaming machines.

• In Texas, efforts to expand legal gambling encountered significant political hurdles. The pro-gambling movement, supported by Las Vegas Sands, suffered a defeat in the special election for Senate District 9 (SD 9), demonstrating that the Texas Senate, led by gambling opponent Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, remains a barrier to legalization.

• In Wisconsin, the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Revenue approved Senate Bill 592 (SB 592), which legalizes mobile sports betting on a “hub and spoke” model with tribal exclusivity, though it met opposition from the SBA, which deemed the revenue-sharing requirement (estimated at 60% for the tribes) “economically unviable.”

📰 Other News

The week was packed with significant developments regarding compliance and integrity in sports and gaming:

• NCAA authorities imposed a permanent ineligibility penalty on six college basketball players (from New Orleans, Mississippi Valley, and Arizona State) for manipulating game outcomes, sharing inside information, and providing false statements, in accordance with the amended 2023 guidelines.

• The Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) ordered three unlicensed online casinos (Cryptowins Casino, Slotland Casino, and Winaday Casino) to cease operations for illegally offering services to residents.

• At the same time, prosecutors in New Jersey filed charges against 14 individuals, including an alleged member of the Lucchese crime family, for financing a multi-million-dollar illegal sports betting ring that recruited student-athletes.

• In another significant event, ESPN ordered its top on-air personalities, including Mina Kimes and Dan Orlovsky, to immediately stop promoting the paid app Solitaire Cash by Papaya Gaming, following a federal civil lawsuit accusing the company of using “personalized bots to control tournament outcomes.”

• Ohio Governor Mike DeWine softened his earlier stance on prop bets, praising the MLB for introducing new national restrictions, including the $200 limit on pitch-level bets.

Worth Reading:

• Why Early Termination Was the Only Winning Bet Left for PENN and ESPN?

• The Genie Is Out of the Bottle: How Prediction Markets Slipped Off the Leash

• Why Gambling Will Never Be Legal In Alabama? [VIDEO]