Interactive Brokers is expanding its prediction markets offering, giving eligible clients access to event contracts from Kalshi, CME Group and ForecastEx through a single trading platform.
The launch marks a notable expansion for Interactive Brokers ($IBKR), which already offered prediction market trading through ForecastEx, its wholly owned CFTC-regulated exchange and clearinghouse. With the new interface, IBKR clients can compare similar prediction market contracts across multiple exchanges, view liquidity and fees, and route trades to the venue offering the best net price.
The move also gives Kalshi another major brokerage distribution partner as prediction market platforms push deeper into retail investing apps and trading platforms. But Interactive Brokers is not a Robinhood-style mass-market app. While everyday investors can open accounts, IBKR’s platform has long skewed toward active traders, sophisticated retail investors and institutional clients.
Interactive Brokers said its prediction markets product will initially focus on election outcomes, climate events and economic indicators, with contracts from Kalshi and CME Group being added on a rolling basis. That focus suggests IBKR is not centering the rollout on sports event contracts, the category that has driven much of Kalshi’s recent growth and several state-level legal fights.
“Prediction markets are reshaping how investors think about risk and uncertainty,” IBKR CEO Milan Galik said in the announcement. “We decided to offer flexible access to this rapidly growing market across multiple venues from a single platform, which aligns with the convenience our clients are used to when trading US stocks or options. IBKR’s Prediction Markets combines the execution advantages of competing platforms with the trusted infrastructure our clients already rely on. We will expand access to additional notable exchanges soon.”
IBKR pitches prediction markets as risk tool
Interactive Brokers’ announcement leans heavily into the idea that prediction markets can function as part of a trader’s larger portfolio, rather than a separate speculative product. The company said the new offering is integrated into the same trading environment clients use for other asset classes, with prediction market positions included in portfolio reporting and real-time position tracking.
IBKR is presenting event contracts as a tool for managing exposure to real-world outcomes. The company pointed to markets tied to monetary policy decisions, economic data releases and climate events, categories that fit more naturally alongside macro trading, hedging and portfolio management than sportsbook-style prediction markets.
IBKR also emphasized that clients can trade prediction markets without moving capital between exchanges or maintaining separate accounts at each venue. That could make cross-platform event contract trading feel closer to the trading infrastructure investors already use in stocks, options and futures.
“For investors looking to hedge event-driven risk, diversify their portfolios, or take a position on real-world outcomes, Prediction Markets represent a distinct and increasingly valuable tool that traditional asset classes cannot replicate,” the company said in the release.
Current IKBR prediction markets interface shows cross-venue pricing
The early version of IBKR’s prediction markets interface appears to identify exchange availability through small venue icons on each market tile. Most contracts currently appear to be ForecastEx-only, while some show both ForecastEx and Kalshi availability. A smaller number appear to be Kalshi-only. CME Group contracts were not immediately visible in the public market list, though IBKR said contracts from Kalshi and CME Group will be rolled out gradually.
The exchange-level comparison is most visible after clicking into a specific market. In a Georgia Democratic gubernatorial primary market, IBKR displayed consolidated pricing at the candidate level, then allowed users to expand individual rows to compare ForecastEx and Kalshi pricing, open interest and available size.
For Jason Esteves, the consolidated quote showed “Yes” at $0.023 and “No” at $0.95. The expanded exchange view showed Kalshi with the lower “Yes” price, $0.023 compared with $0.09 at ForecastEx. On the “No” side, ForecastEx showed the lower price, $0.95 compared with $0.989 at Kalshi.
A similar pattern appeared for Geoff Duncan. The consolidated quote showed “Yes” at $0.02 and “No” at $0.99. The expanded view showed Kalshi with the lower “Yes” price, $0.01 compared with $0.04 at ForecastEx, while ForecastEx showed the lower “No” price, $0.99 compared with $0.997 at Kalshi.
The snapshot shows why IBKR’s launch is more than a simple Kalshi tab inside a brokerage account. For similar outcomes, users can see whether pricing and liquidity differ across venues before placing a trade, while IBKR’s interface presents the market through a single trading screen.
Kalshi and CME gain another key distribution channel
For Kalshi, the Interactive Brokers launch adds another distribution partner at a time when the company has been pushing to make prediction markets available inside retail investing and trading platforms. Kalshi contracts have already appeared through integrations with platforms like Robinhood, where it has become a significant driver of Kalshi volume.
“IBKR is the gold standard in the global financial broker industry,” Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said in the announcement. “Its integration with Kalshi is a testament to the growing importance of prediction markets for sophisticated investors and financial institutions. We’re just in the early innings of deep institutional adoption.”
CME Group also gains a new access point beyond its existing distribution through platforms like FanDuel Predicts and DraftKings Predictions. FanDuel Predicts is built through a CME-FanDuel joint venture and offers CME-listed event contracts, while DraftKings Predictions started with CME Group markets, then added Crypto.com contracts earlier this year.
“We are pleased that IBKR clients can connect to CME Group prediction markets to trade their views on benchmarks and economic indicators,” CME Group CEO Terry Duffy said in the announcement. “Retail demand for prediction market trading continues to grow, and expanding access is central to how CME Group continues to develop these markets for all participants.”
Interactive Brokers brings a different audience than Robinhood or other mass-market, app-oriented platforms, like Moomoo, which recently announced a Kalshi partnership. The company reported 4.859 million client accounts at the end of April, compared with Robinhood’s 27.6 million funded customers and Schwab’s 39.3 million active brokerage accounts.
Those figures are not directly comparable because each company uses a different metric, but they show IBKR gives Kalshi and CME access to a smaller, more active-trader-focused brokerage base that also includes institutional users, advisors and other sophisticated market participants already using its derivatives and multi-asset trading infrastructure.
Prediction markets move closer to traditional trading
The Interactive Brokers launch points to a new layer of regulated prediction market distribution, with event contracts moving into the brokerage platforms traders already use for stocks, options, futures and other assets. That could make contracts more accessible to active traders and institutions, while making price differences across exchanges easier to spot.
The rollout also shows a more finance-focused path for prediction markets while sports contracts remain the sector’s most legally contentious growth area. IBKR’s emphasis on elections, climate events, economic indicators and benchmarks suggests some major financial platforms see the category’s next phase as less about sports-driven volume and more about market access, hedging and cross-venue execution.
