PredictStreet Hints at Expansion, Leading Way for EU Prediction Markets?

PredictStreet, the official prediction market for the FIFA World Cup, has announced that it is planning to expand its services to include real world events outside sports. Right now, the platform provides markets and trading opportunities exclusively on the FIFA World Cup, with market volumes ranging from tens of thousands to a few hundred thousand – with some events exceeding $1 million. The Gibraltar licensed prediction market stated that, with the blessing of the regulator, it will move into political, entertainment, and other cultural event-based markets.

This is a bold step for the company, run by the ADI Foundation, and one that firmly establishes its desire to plan for a long-term future. But with EU regulators still undecided on the legality of prediction markets, there is much uncertainty about the future of Europe’s first officially licensed prediction market. And how Europe will tackle these going forward.

ADI PredictStreet Future Plans

PredictStreet was just launched in April, by the Abu Dhabi ADI Foundation, and secured the official prediction market rights to the FIFA World Cup. The site provided markets only for the big event, and still does, and it has gradually racked up impressive market volume for a platform that is just a few months old. But as it just stuck to FIFA World Cup events, from pregame moneylines, spreads and totals to outright futures bets, PredictStreet didn’t show any palpable on-site signs of what would happen once the big event concluded.

It does have a Gibraltar remote betting intermediary license, and great financial backing (as evident of this obscure site securing official FIFA marketing rights), but there were no markets on anything outside the World Cup. The founders announced last week that that is about to change, as PredictStreet is looking at launching more categories, including political and entertainment.

Gibraltar Licensing Conditions

The site is licensed in Gibraltar, and was the first prediction market to be licensed in Europe. PredictStreet holds a betting intermediary license, meaning the platform is

“the business of providing a service designed to facilitate the making or acceptance of bets between others but is not a party to any such bet and does not include a person who acts as servant or agent to another person who is a licence holder in respect of betting”

The regulator still has the authority to oversee the regulated activities and determine whether any contracts fit the description of the permissible activities under the Gibraltar Gambling Act 2025. There is no mention of any restrictions on the markets that betting intermediaries offer. The only other company that holds a Betting Intermediary license with the Gibraltar gaming authorities is Entain, which used to own BETDAQ.

The closest comparisons can be made to the UKGC betting intermediaries. The UKGC also has this type of license, and major exchanges that hold these licenses include Betfair, Smarkets, and Triplebet (Matchbook).

Prediction Market or Betting Exchange?

The concern here is that those betting intermediaries are betting exchanges, and not prediction markets. The classic difference between the two is that, historically, betting exchanges focused on sports only, whereas prediction markets were primarily for real world events. Think stuff like the stock index prices, political elections, Super Bowl props like what song the headline act will sing, and other finance or culture-related markets.

But those historical lines are blurring. Betting exchanges are increasingly adopting more cultural events, and prediction markets, for the better part of 2025, zoned in on sports related contracts. However, there are still some minute differences between the classic betting exchanges and prediction markets.

For betting exchanges were generally poised to expert bettors. You can look at market demanded prices, take those orders or make your own (at your own price), and the process was more spreadsheet-based with liquidity figures and price volume stats. Prediction markets, just on the face of it, have a far simpler UI. Open any market and you will see price line over time charts, with percentages to reflect the probability of a market winning. The big dogs, like Kalshi and Polymarket, also tend to have comment sections where users can interact, and the markets tend to delve into extremely short-term nonsports events – such as how many Tweets a major celebrity will make, or what the price of Bitcoin will be tomorrow.

These lines are blurring, but the interfaces are gradually converging towards a more simplified prediction market style, with noisy chats and extremely short-term cultural markets. A fresher trend, driven by US market leader Kalshi, is perpetual futures on prediction market sites. Kalshi introduced Kalshi Perps and within 1 week it hit $1+ billion in market volume. A traditionally more finance-related type of market, this was quite an eye-opener for Kalshi – which is famously more of a sports-oriented prediction market than a finance or cultural event related one.

Frictions for PredictStreet

The issue is that PredictStreet is really the first of its kind in Europe, as a regulated prediction market. Gone are the days when a Gibraltar iGaming or betting license would give the holder an all-access type of pass to the rest of Europe, and to the UK. In recent years, the trend is for domestic gambling authorities to close up their markets, and to make it necessary for EU-licensed operators to also obtain local licenses. Though it is technically easier for a Gibraltar licensed platform to obtain, let’s say, a Spanish one, because the Gibraltar licenses have a good international reputation.

Even more so now that Gibraltar has reformed its outdated 2005 Gambling Act with a new one.

However, there is no regulated precedent for PredictStreet to point towards. This is the first prediction market to be licensed, as a Betting Intermediary – a license type recognized in the UK but pretty much unknown across the rest of Europe – and EU operators are pretty divided on whether or not prediction markets should be legal at all.

Where the Site Actually Operates

If you were following the World Cup matches right from day 1, you may have spotted the ADI PredictStreet brand crop up on the perimeter boards every now and again. This has changed ever so slightly during the competition (at the time of writing, we are in the knockout stage), and now the branding also features Kalshi next to ADI PredictStreet. There have even been ads for the Fanatics Inc led prediction market, Fanatics Market.

Behind the scenes, PredictStreet partnered with Kalshi to expand its global presence, obtain the necessary US permissions through Fanatics Market, and partnered up with similar platforms around the world to bolster its international presence. These have also included partnerships with B2B software companies like DAZN, to improve the platform’s betting experience for users.

The partnerships include:

• FIFA
• Kalshi
• Fanatics Market
• DAZN
• Matchbook

In its terms and conditions, PredictStreet states that it caters to all players except for those who are based in countries where prediction markets are not allowed, where online gambling is illegal, and using crypto assets is not restricted. Because the internal currency of PredictStreet is not USD, but USD1 – a stablecoin that is pegged to the dollar at a rate of 1:1.

It specifically highlights:

“you must not be a person identified on any sanctions list maintained by the European Union, the United Nations, His Majesty’s Treasury, the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control, or any other applicable sanctions authority;”

And as Portugal, Belgium, France, and Spain have blocked prediction markets (among numerous other countries), the European reach of PredictStreet is not very big.

European Stance on Prediction Markets

In fact, just recently, there was a meeting between 9 EU regulators who made a joint statement on the dangers of prediction markets. Beyond this joint statement on the concerns of prediction markets being used as sportsbooks, there were some hints at the end of the publication that seemed to suggest these countries will:

• Strengthen cross-border cooperation
• Exchange of information and expertise
• Intensifying the activity on social media to promote fair play

It was mostly addressing the activity during the FIFA World Cup (hence the need to manage the flurry of activity on social media). The statement comes at a pivotal moment for PredictStreet too, as more EU regulators are banning or temporarily blocking prediction markets as they put pen to paper to find out what to do about them. In Germany, the PredictStreet ads during the World Cup matches are now under investigation by the GGL, and it wouldn’t be surprising if other regulators launched their own investigations into PredictStreet.

Going forward, PredictStreet listed 7 types of event contracts on its about page, potentially hinting at what could come next. These are Politics, Economics, Sports, Finance, Science, Technology and Current Affairs. Partnerships with Kalshi and Fanatics Market (who in turn is partnered with Crypto.com, which supplies the trading infrastructure), give PredictStreet plenty of resources to go on if they are to expand soon. With all the regulators in Europe watching their back, and leading partners and other prediction markets alike all following what happens next, ADI PredictStreet is one of the most important stories in the legal battles that prediction markets are facing today.