Fanatics Buys BGC Exchange and Clearinghouse to Run Its Own Prediction Markets

Fanatics agreed on July 27 to buy a federally regulated exchange and clearinghouse from BGC Group, giving the sports company its own venue to list and settle event contracts.

The deal ends Fanatics' reliance on someone else's rails. Since Fanatics Markets launched in December 2025, the app has operated as a broker routing customer trades to an exchange run by Crypto.com. Owning the infrastructure lets Fanatics decide which contracts to list and how quickly, on a platform now live in 23 states and four U.S. territories.

What Fanatics Is Buying

Fanatics is acquiring Water Street Labs, a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) registered designated contract market, and CX Clearinghouse, a registered derivatives clearing organization, the two companies said. A designated contract market is a licensed futures exchange. The clearing organization stands behind the trades and settles them.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Fanatics already held the brokerage layer, having bought Paragon Global Markets in July 2025.

BGC stays on as a partner supplying liquidity, institutional trading infrastructure and market data. The two also plan joint data products pairing prediction market activity with traditional financial data. Co-Chief Executive John Abularrage called the sale "an important strategic step" for BGC's data and analytics business.

Rivals Race to Own the Rails

Buying a license rather than applying for one is now the standard move. Polymarket paid $112 million for CFTC-licensed exchange and clearinghouse QCEX in July 2025 to re-enter the United States. Kalshi runs its own exchange and distributes through partners including Robinhood.

Robinhood is in talks to add Crypto.com's event contracts to its own prediction markets hub, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Neither company has confirmed the discussions.

Controlling the exchange does not settle the legal question underneath it. Prediction market platforms have clashed with state regulators over whether sports contracts amount to unlicensed sports betting, a fight Fanatics now enters as an exchange operator rather than a customer of one.

Fanatics and BGC named no price, no closing date and no timetable for moving Fanatics Markets onto the new exchange.