Robinhood outlines caution around contentious prediction markets

Financial services organization Robinhood has specified the calculated restriction of several prediction market categories – citing concerns related to insider trading and manipulation.  

Indeed, according to the company’s UK President Jordan Sinclair, the operator has drawn an intensified focus on combatting market manipulation, abuse and insider trading after entering the prediction market sector via partnership with Kalshi in 2025.  

This move saw Robinhood and Kalshi launch sports events contracts via NFL and College Football-related prediction markets – which have drawn nationwide scrutiny from state gambling regulators. However, the financial-services-turned-prediction operator has underlined that there are some market types that it ‘won’t offer’ due to a plethora of legal and additional anxieties.  

Namely, Sinclair outlined that Robinhood does not currently offer mention markets and has no plans to introduce them to its platform in the pipeline.  

Mention markets allow users to ‘predict’ what a given person may say as part of a public briefing or event, for example, betting on 2026 Grammy Awards host Trevor Noah to say the word “potato” during the ceremony. These markets, specifically, have become a focal point of a handful of insider trading scandals which have resulted in financial penalties and legal action in the US. 

This latest development comes within the context of Polymarket recently offering war-related events contracts – allowing users to trade on outcomes related to death. Subsequently, Democratic US lawmakers in California introduced legislation last month which seeks to outlaw such practices by prohibiting prediction market contracts related to war, terrorism and individual deaths.  

More broadly, Robinhood’s recent drive into the prediction market sector has served to further progress the fast-growing sector – with the company joining trade association, the Coalition for Prediction Markets, in late 2025, shortly before also launching NFL parlay and prop bets to users.  

Elsewhere this month, Robinhood’s prediction market provider Kalshi has been in the courts in both Arizona and Nevada – with its sports events contracts formally outlawed in the latter. In the Grand Canyon State, Kalshi continues to battle against Arizona state gambling regulators for the right to run the very same contracts.