DraftKings-owned Railbird Exchange appears close to listing its first sports event contracts, a step that could move DraftKings Predictions toward using more of its own exchange infrastructure after launching with contracts from third-party venues.
Six product certifications first posted to Railbird’s regulatory page appeared on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s public filing portal the morning of May 26 under Railbird’s registered entity identifier, REX. The filings lay out a full sports prediction-market menu, with Railbird, doing business as DKeX, self-certifying templates for game winners, spreads, game and player props, head-to-head performance markets and more.
The filings say the contracts will be initially listed after close of business May 27, 2026. Each filing says Railbird intends to list the contracts “on a custom basis,” meaning the templates can be used to create specific markets tied to different teams, players, competitions, time periods and outcomes.
The filings cover a wide range of sports, including football, basketball, baseball, hockey, golf, MMA, motor sports, soccer and tennis. Some templates also reference college sports and international leagues.
DraftKings looks to bring more prediction market trading in-house
The move is significant for DraftKings because Railbird gives the company a path to control more of the prediction-market product directly. DraftKings Predictions has so far relied on third-party contracts listed by Crypto.com and CME Group. Railbird’s filings point to a next phase in which DraftKings can list sports contracts on its own CFTC-regulated exchange, giving it more control over contract design, liquidity, pricing and exchange-level fees.
DraftKings acquired Railbird in October as part of its push into prediction markets. Railbird Exchange is a CFTC-registered designated contract market (DCM), meaning it can list federally regulated event contracts. That gives DraftKings a different kind of role than it has when it offers contracts listed by outside exchanges. Third-party contracts let DraftKings get to market faster, but they also limit how much control DraftKings has over the contract catalog, market structure and exchange-level economics.
The new self-certified contracts follow recent comments from DraftKings executives that the company was preparing to bring Railbird online soon.
On DraftKings’ recent first-quarter earnings call, CEO Jason Robins said annualized predictions consumer volume exceeded $1 billion in April, while annualized total trading volume exceeded $2.3 billion. He also said DraftKings had launched market making, which gave the company access to “an additional layer of the value chain.”
“In the coming weeks, we expect to launch our proprietary exchange,” Robins said of Railbird on the call. “Together, these moves will accelerate innovation, improve the customer experience, and strengthen our economics.”
Railbird filings show a sportsbook-style contract menu
The Railbird filings show how far DraftKings may be able to extend its sports prediction market product through a CFTC-regulated exchange. DraftKings Predictions already gives the company a way to offer sports event contracts in states where its sportsbook does not operate, expanding its reach beyond the state-by-state online sports betting map.
The filings are unusually detailed and don’t simply cover one league or one type of market. Each contract family includes sport-specific schedules, settlement rules, contingencies and examples showing how markets would resolve. The six filings resemble the building blocks of a sportsbook-style menu, including winner markets, spreads, props, player and team statistics, achievement markets and head-to-head matchups
| Filing | What it covers | Sportsbook-style equivalent |
| GAMEWIN | Whether a team, player or competitor wins a game, match, period, series, tournament or other defined segment. | Moneyline, period winner, tournament winner |
| GAMESPREAD | Whether a team or competitor’s score differential against an opponent meets a defined threshold. | Point spread, run line, puck line, set spread |
| GAMEPROPERTY | Whether a specific thing happens during a game or match, like a turnover, touchdown drive, goal, knockout or exact set score. | Game props, drive props, method-of-victory props, exact-score props |
| ENTITYSTAT | Whether a team, player or competitor records a specified statistic above, below or equal to a number. | Player props, team stat props |
| ENTITYACHIEVEMENT | Whether a team, player or competitor earns an award, reaches a milestone, achieves a placement or completes a defined accomplishment. | Futures, awards, playoff qualification, first scorer markets |
| ENTITYOUTPERFORM | Whether one team, player or competitor beats another in a specified metric during a defined event or time period. | Head-to-head props, matchup props |
Railbird fee schedule shows path to exchange-level revenue
Other recent Railbird filings show the exchange building the operating structure around those sports contracts. Along with the product certifications, DKeX posted a fee schedule and a market maker program, both of which help explain why bringing trading onto Railbird matters for DraftKings.
The fee schedule says DKeX doesn’t charge for orders that are placed, canceled or modified and there are no settlement fees. Instead, it charges trading fees when orders are matched on the exchange. The schedule includes both taker fees and maker fees, with taker fees ranging from $0.005 to $0.01 per contract depending on contract price, and maker fees set at $0.0025 per contract.
That fee model helps explain part of the reason DraftKings wants to bring more prediction market trading onto Railbird. Crypto.com and CME Group receive trading fees on contracts listed by their exchanges and offered through DraftKings Predictions. If those trades instead occur on Railbird’s order book, the DraftKings-owned exchange can collect trading fees directly.
Railbird also filed a market maker program designed to increase liquidity on its central limit order book. The filing says the program is intended to support products listed for trading by increasing liquidity and creating more efficient pricing. Market makers generally must quote two-sided markets, maintain maximum bid/offer spreads and provide minimum depth during trading to qualify for incentives.
The market maker program gives another clue about how DraftKings is preparing to scale the product. Sports prediction markets need enough liquidity to produce tight pricing and a usable trading experience. The Railbird filing says the program applies to covered products listed in confidential liquidity schedules, so the public version does not show which markets will receive incentives or what those incentives will be.
Combos remain the next piece to watch
One piece is still missing from Railbird’s public filings. The six product certifications do not include a separate combo product, the parlay-style feature Robins said would be rolled out in the coming weeks during the company’s recent earnings call.
DraftKings has framed combos as an area where its sportsbook experience could matter. In its March investor presentation, the company said its strategy to win in the prediction market space would follow its “sportsbook playbook,” including proprietary pricing and trading, sports customer knowledge and vertical integration. The same presentation said DraftKings’ “mastery of parlay complexity” positions it to lead in on-demand combos.
That suggests another filing may still be coming if DraftKings intends to offer combos through Railbird. That would track with the direction of the prediction market industry. Kalshi already attracts significant trading volume with its combo sports markets, and Gemini recently filed combination-style contracts that would let traders take positions tied to multiple outcomes in a single market. Polymarket filed to begin offering parlay-style “Combinatoric Athletic Outcome Contracts” last week.
For traders, with the addition of combos and a more extensive slate of sports event contracts, Railbird’s launch could mean an even more sportsbook-like experience inside DraftKings Predictions, especially in states where DraftKings does not operate its sportsbook.
