Prediction Markets and Super Apps Take Centre Stage at NEXT Summit New York

_{Panellists at the Next.io Conference in New York, MaxMeltzer, Ramy Ibrahim, Sandford Loudon and Evan Meyer. (Image: Next.io)}

Investors and operators gathered at NEXT Summit New York on 10–11 March 2026 spent much of their time on a question that would have seemed niche just two years ago: who will control the emerging prediction markets space, and under what legal framework?

A panel moderated by Max Meltzer, CEO and co-founder of Strive Gaming, drew out a clear consensus: the competition for prediction market customers is no longer confined to gaming companies. Financial platforms, super apps, and crypto operators are now part of the same fight, and traditional operators’ risk being left behind if they move too slowly.

That urgency reflects real market momentum. Kalshi, the leading US-regulated prediction market exchange, closed a $300 million Series D at a $5 billion valuation in October then raised a further $1 billion at an $11 billion valuation in December. Weekly trading volumes across major platforms now regularly exceed $5 billion. A report released to coincide with the summit projected that the sector could surpass $1 trillion in annual volume if current growth trajectories hold.

Capital Is Pouring In, But Not Evenly

Sandford Loudon, partner at Oakvale Capital LLP, argued that the clearest equity value in recent years has come from locally regulated operators and regional champions, particularly in markets undergoing regulatory change. Brazil was the most cited example. The country's regulated sports betting framework took effect in January 2025, opening one of the industry's largest untapped markets to licensed operators.

'Latin America has become a very exciting region, in particular Brazil with the regulation,' Loudon said.

He also outlined a pattern of investment themes cycling through the sector. Sweepstakes had a moment. Daily fantasy sports matured into something more durable than expected prediction markets have taken over the conversation, though Loudon was measured about it.

'I kind of almost don't want to speak about prediction markets. It's overdone so much, but that feels like it currently the big play,' he said.

Ramy Ibrahim, managing director at Moelis & Company, pointed to a wider structural tension: private valuations for prediction market companies are running far ahead of the multiples applied to listed gaming groups.

'There's a massive, massive dislocation between the public valuations and the private valuations,' Ibrahim said.

That gap has helped attract capital to unlisted platforms and start-ups tied to prediction market infrastructure. Even so, Ibrahim said he still expects the broader gaming sector to consolidate, with or without the valuation gap narrowing.

'There will continue to be consolidation globally,' he said.

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Brokers, Bookmakers, and the Super App Threat

The panel's most striking theme was the arrival of financial platforms in what was once clearly defined territory. Evan Meyer, managing director at Astralis Capital and Ibrahim both pointed to the emergence of 'super apps’, platforms that blend trading, payments, and event contracts,  as a potential threat to the customer acquisition models that traditional sportsbooks rely on.

'What you've seen announced in the last couple of weeks is the move to these super apps,' Meyer said.

Robinhood is the most prominent example. The trading platform now hosts a dedicated prediction markets section inside its app, offering event contracts through its joint venture exchange, Rothera, which Robinhood and Susquehanna International Group acquired in late 2025. The logic, as Ibrahim framed it, is straightforward.

'My bookie is my broker,' he said.

If a customer already holds funds inside a financial app, cross-selling event contracts becomes far easier than persuading them to open a separate sportsbook account. That changes the competitive calculation for incumbent operators considerably.

Regulation Remains the Defining Variable

For all the optimism around prediction markets, panellists returned repeatedly to the legal and regulatory environment, which remains fragmented and contested.

'It next two to four years,' Meyer said.

That assessment is well-grounded. In January 2026, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig withdrew a proposed rule that would have banned sports and political event contracts and committed to new rulemaking to establish a clearer regulatory framework for prediction markets. The legal battle continues in parallel, with federal and state courts reaching divergent decisions on whether sports event contracts are federally regulated derivatives or unlicensed gambling. More than a dozen states have filed actions against leading prediction market operators, and the question is widely expected to reach the US Supreme Court.

Ibrahim argued that the regulatory patchwork is itself partly responsible for prediction markets' rapid growth in the US. The American Gaming Association's state-by-state gaming map shows just how uneven the regulated sports betting landscape remains, creating gaps that prediction platforms, operating under federal CFTC oversight rather than state licensing, have moved into quickly.

'Innovation is outpacing regulation,' Ibrahim said.

That dynamic cuts both ways. Capital moves into grey areas fast, as investors at the panel made clear. But today's high-growth product could face a far harder legal environment within a few years, particularly as the question versus state jurisdiction works its way through the courts.

Who Wins in a Consolidating Market?

Loudon suggested that exchange-style prediction markets may ultimately concentrate around a small number of large operators, because liquidity attracts liquidity. Critical mass matters more in this market structure than in many other parts of gaming.

'These exchanges require such critical mass that it's hard to imagine others really being able to compete,' Loudon said.

That leaves a different kind of opportunity for smaller players: user experience, personalisation, and technology built on top of major platforms, rather than competing against them. That framing aligns with a deal announced the day before the summit began. Underdog confirmed on 9 March that it had acquired Aristotle Exchange DCM, Inc. and Aristotle Exchange DCO, Inc., both registered with the CFTC, giving it the federal exchange infrastructure to offer its own prediction market products rather than relying on third-party platforms.

The panel offered no simple winner. Large operators will keep consolidating. Private capital will keep seeking regulatory openings. Smaller companies still have room to build valuable products if they move early enough on execution.

'There's no shortage of capital and certainly no shortage of opportunities out there,' Ibrahim said.

For anyone wishing to know more about prediction markets, read our recent article on prediction markets vs traditional gambling and the Gambling Commission have recently released an article "Prediction markets - here’s what you need to know."