CME Group CEO Terry Duffy told analysts on the company’s second-quarter earnings call Wednesday that sports prediction markets amount to gambling and that he expects the U.S. Supreme Court will eventually hear a case on the issue.
Duffy said CME, which operates one of the largest derivatives exchanges in the world, has seen strong activity in its prediction market offering but intends to stay away from the controversy surrounding sports event contracts, according to remarks on the July 22 call.
CME reported 140,000 accounts trading event contracts in the June quarter, up 13 percent from the first quarter. Average daily volume topped four million contracts, representing 40 percent quarter-over-quarter growth.
The exchange operator unveiled a partnership with FanDuel parent Flutter Entertainment last August, though neither FanDuel nor Flutter was mentioned on the call.
