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A major shift is unfolding in the retail derivatives world, and Plus500 appears determined not to be left behind. The London-listed fintech group has stepped into the rapidly expanding prediction-market sector, securing a deal to provide execution and clearing services for the newly launched event-contracts platform spearheaded by CME Group and FanDuel.
The partnership, revealed this week, signals a deeper realignment inside Plus500’s long-term strategy. Only weeks earlier, CME linked up with FanDuel to build an event-based trading venue tailored for US customers—an unusual mix of institutional derivatives heritage and mass-market gambling reach. Plus500’s arrival as the clearing backbone effectively completes the trio, giving the platform a regulated conduit with an infrastructure partner experienced in high-velocity retail flows.
A Pivot Beyond the CFD Comfort Zone
Plus500 is still best known for its vast contracts-for-difference (CFD) operation, but the company has been steadily edging beyond the traditional OTC model. Its revenue numbers from the third quarter underscore why: while it pulled in $182.7 million, the total represented a slide compared with both the previous quarter and the same period last year. Yet deeper inside the report was a more telling statistic—non-OTC activity now accounts for roughly 15% of the firm’s earnings, and nearly one in five new customers originates from these alternative business lines.
The shift is not accidental. Alongside the FanDuel–CME project, Plus500 recently struck an exclusive arrangement with Topstep, the Chicago-based prop-trading firm. Under that deal, Plus500 will manage all clearing and essential technology infrastructure for Topstep’s brokerage and operational ecosystem. Put together, the two agreements illustrate a deliberate bid to rebrand the broker as an institutional-grade service provider, not just a high-margin CFD shop.
Why Prediction Markets Are Becoming Impossible to Ignore
Prediction markets—often framed as “event contracts” under US regulatory definitions—have long existed on the fringes of finance. For years they were the domain of offshore crypto platforms that blurred the line between speculation, forecasting, and outright gambling. But in 2024 and 2025, the sector reached an inflection point.
Mainstream American brokers and clearinghouses now view these products as a new customer-acquisition engine and a fresh source of order flow. Robinhood’s recent disclosures pointed to more than 9 billion event contracts traded and a user base exceeding one million on its in-house prediction venue. Meanwhile, Kalshi, the pioneer of regulated US event contracts, saw monthly volumes swell to $4.4 billion in October—levels unimaginable before its regulatory milestones.
It’s not just brokers chasing the hype. Technology vendors embedded in the CFD ecosystem are racing to diversify. Devexperts, one of the most widely used platform providers in the brokerage space, launched a full white-label prediction market system this month, a clear attempt to position itself at the spine of the industry’s next product wave.
A Strategic Bet on Two Booming User Bases
Plus500’s entry into this arena hints at an understanding that the prediction-market boom will not remain a niche for long. For FanDuel, whose audience is already accustomed to data-driven decision-making in sports wagering, event contracts offer a bridge between entertainment and financial speculation. CME brings the regulatory muscle and derivatives pedigree. Plus500 fills the final gap—scalable clearing infrastructure, hard-earned regulatory experience, and deep familiarity with converting high-volume retail traffic into compliant, real-time market activity.
If the model succeeds, it could set a precedent for a hybrid future where retail traders, sports bettors, and traditional derivatives markets converge around outcome-based financial products. That convergence, in turn, would open new lanes for brokers seeking to overcome margin compression and rising acquisition costs in the CFD sector.
The Big Picture: From Broker to Infrastructure Engine
The two strategic partnerships announced within weeks—FanDuel/CME and Topstep—look less like opportunistic wins and more like a coordinated repositioning. Plus500 appears to be building a secondary identity as an infrastructure provider to fast-scaling verticals within retail trading.
The question now is how aggressively the firm intends to pursue this pivot. With event-contract volumes exploding across the United States and platform vendors racing to launch solutions for brokers worldwide, the window for early infrastructural dominance may close quickly.
For now, Plus500 has managed to insert itself at the center of one of the fastest-growing segments in financial speculation. The company may still be synonymous with CFDs in the public eye, but if its latest deals prove successful, its future might rely far more on clearing the trades of others than on its own legacy products.
Source: financemagnates.com
