The typical prediction market customer wants entertainment and innovation and is interested in different topics and what is happening in the world, according to Laila Mintas, founder and CEO of 365 Prediction.
She believes they also have the money to put behind their purchases.
While Mintas offered her description of the typical customer, Charles Gasparino, a reporter with Fox Business News, said when he thinks of the typical customer, it’s a 24-year-old guy who likes to drink a lot of beer and watches sports.
“Is that kind of close?” Gasparino asked panelists during a discussion on how prediction markets are reshaping gaming at Predict 2026 in New York.
Jeanie Hightower-Sellitto, senior vice president and general manager with DraftKings Predictions, said the typical customer is retail-centric, “a sports-first customer in terms of the volume that they’re trading. I think most people come to prediction markets because of sports, maybe crypto secondarily to that, based on volume.”
But the product is diversifying into other types of content that people are just interested in. Hightower-Sellitto explained that when you find a mechanism that works to captivate the customer in what they’re trading, it creates that kind of product.
Hightower-Sellitto, Mintas, and Gasparino were joined on the panel by Jordan Bender, managing director equity research at Citizens, and Tom Johnson, founder and CEO of HoldCrunch.
Bender said the question, who is that customer and how do prediction markets impact a company like DraftKings in a time when the legalization of sports betting is slowing. really started when this new vertical began to take off last year. But the question Bender gets most of all is what does cannibalization look like?
“Through some of the work that we’ve done, we’ve found that around 45% of the sports betting industry has been cannibalized by prediction markets,” Bender said. “That’s obviously in states with legal sport betting.”
Bender pointed to the work Citizens has done throughout the year, which indicates it hasn’t gotten much worse. He described the typical customer as somewhere around 29 to 31 years old and male.
“We’ve also found that as players adopt prediction markets, they’ve also increased the role of size by about 27%,” Bender said. “So it’s not only who the customer is, but the customers that are coming in, no matter who they are, are actually expanding the size of the total industry.”
Johnson, who spent 18 years at Flutter Entertainment, said in the UK they had Betfair sports betting and prediction markets. “The customers are very similar. It’s an emotional engagement. So I place a bet or trade. There’s adrenaline. If I win, I’m happy. If I lose, I’m not.”
Gasparino wondered it, while the National Football League has made efforts to reach out to potential female fans, can the same be said for prediction markets?
“I think none of the friends out there are currently doing a lot to engage women,” Mintas said. “What we are seeing is that the products that are out there are great first versions of products in the market, but they’re not really (for) women. A lot of smart women want to be engaged and want to use those products.”
Mintas added that not many brands are really focusing on female sports or the female sports fan, even with existing brands that make customers search for female sports.
Hightower-Sellitto said DraftKings offers products that appeal to a wide variety of participants, including women. Besides sports and financial products, she said they offer cultural products, which typically find a more female demographic.
“We’ve listed ‘Dancing with the Stars,’” Hightower-Sellitto said. “So there is a way to capture an audience by the way of product you can offer that is interesting to them.”
Prediction markets agree to leave Connecticut
Connecticut’s Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) told CDC Gaming that ProphetX, Gemini, and Webull have agreed to stop offering sports-event contracts traded on prediction markets in the state.
All three companies received cease-and-desist letters from the DCP. In an email, the agency said it was their understanding that Webull will continue to offer “their legitimate financial product,” which they were asked not to shut down.
Gemini also offers financial products. However, ProphetX offers only sports-event prediction markets and will be leaving the state entirely.
“Our actions sent a clear message: We will not tolerate illegal prediction market activity that preys upon the most vulnerable consumers,” said DCP Commissioner Bryan T. Cafferelli.
Cafferelli said the three operators heard the message and are leaving the state.“We are hopeful the rest will decide targeting Connecticut consumers isn’t worth breaking the law.”
Last month, the DCP issued cease-and-desist letters to nine prediction markets. The agency confirmed that other letters were sent to Polymarket, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Robinhood, Novig, and Underdog Predict.
Officials said prediction markets that offer sports wagers in Connecticut violate the state’s gaming and unfair-practices law. The sites allow people under 21 to participate and allow wagers on state collegiate sports.
