Robinhood Abides Regulatory Request to Suspend Super Bowl Trading

Financial trading platform Robinhood recently announced it would halt trading of Super Bowl event wagering at the request of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Slow Your Rollout

In December, Robinhood hinted it would allow trading on the Super Bowl and subsequently established a partnership with Manhattan-based financial trading company Kalshi. It wasn’t long afterward that Kalshi CEO, Tarek Mansour, posted the following on X on February 3rd, 2025:

Kalshi 🤝 Robinhood

Today is a big day: Kalshi launches its first broker, Robinhood.

25 million more people now have exposure to our prediction markets.

However, the Super Bowl trading activity on Robinhood was short-lived as Robinhood’s C-suite executives rethought their position, and the company posted its own social media post the following day.

“The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has formally requested that Robinhood Derivatives, LLC (RHD) ‘not permit customers to access’ sports event contracts,” Robinhood stated. “While we continue to work with the CFTC to understand their concerns, we are suspending the rollout of the Pro Football Championship market. We have rolled this product out to roughly 1% of our customers, and for those who already placed trades, we plan on providing the option to close their positions or take them to resolution.”

Robinhood has not abandoned the idea of offering trading on single-event sports betting competitions but will cooperate with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) until a permanent resolution can be reached.

Crypto.com Refuses CFTC Request

Not everyone is playing nice in the sandbox with the CFTC, as Kalshi and Crypto.com have ignored the regulator’s request to suspend trading on the Super Bowl after the agency lost a legal battle last year regarding the issue of trading contracts on US election races, primarily but not exclusively, on the presidential race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

The CFTC is exploring whether trading on major sporting events constitutes a violation of US gaming laws, which is the exclusive purview of state-regulated mobile and retail sportsbooks. The difference between the trading platforms, currently trading in all 50 states and not subject to state gambling laws, is that these are considered financial trading instruments, much like commodities on gold, silver, or any number of other derivatives.

The price of the trading contracts is also volatile and will fluctuate with the market, much like a stock, while betting on a sporting event with an online sportsbook has a definitive price (odds) or point spread that is locked in at the moment the wager is made.

Crypto.com Fires Back

When asked about Crypto.com’s position on the CFTC’s request to suspend trading on the Super Bowl, a spokesperson with the company emailed the following statement:

“It is disappointing that the current and imminently departing CFTC leadership would take this action while not allowing the incoming CFTC leadership to determine how free markets operate under its administration. The majority’s decision to apply this rule contradicts recent Federal Court rulings and conflicts with the current Commission’s own statement set forth in its recent rule proposal.

“We remain committed to working with the CFTC and will continue to support our customers and the trading of our sports title event contracts in all 50 states without interruption while we review the CFTC’s notification.”