FanDuel vs. Fanatics: A Look at Their Prediction-Market Models for Baseball

Baseball is one of the few categories where these two platforms can be compared directly. Both launched prediction markets within weeks of each other, and both listed baseball among the sports available at launch. 

What they built around it is not the same. The differences show up in who holds the regulated relationship, how contracts are priced and displayed, and crucially, where you can trade a baseball contract at all. 

Key Takeaways 

*FanDuel Predicts launched in December 2025 with CME Group serving as the exchange venue behind the product. 

*Fanatics Markets operates through Morton St. Trading Investments, a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant and NFA member. 

*FanDuel priced contracts from one cent to 99 cents, while Fanatics Markets works in a zero- to one hundred dollar convention. 

*FanDuel Predicts launched with baseball contracts only in states without legal online sports betting, and said it would withdraw them as states legalized. 

*A single MLB game on the Fanatics board carries around 40 contracts covering moneyline, spread and total. 

Two routes into the same sport 

FanDuel took the partnership route. It launched FanDuel Predicts on 22 December 2025 with CME Group, the derivatives marketplace, acting as the exchange venue behind the product. 

The platform arrived as a standalone mobile app in Alabama, Alaska, South Carolina, North Dakota and South Dakota, with a phased national rollout announced for the following months. 

FanDuel is part of Flutter Entertainment, and the app was built on the company’s existing identity verification and compliance infrastructure. 

Fanatics built the regulated relationship in-house. Fanatics Markets is the trading name of Morton St.Trading Investments, itself a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant and a member of the National Futures Association. 

Its contracts are offered through Crypto.com Derivatives North America under Nadex rules, and the platform sits within the wider Fanatics ecosystem alongside the company’s commerce, collectibles and betting businesses.  

The practical distinction is that Fanatics holds the brokerage registration directly rather than acting as a consumer front end for a partner exchange. 

How a baseball market is built 

Looking at Fanatics Markets baseball lines shows what a single MLB game actually contains. A game card carries a moneyline on the winner, a run line spread, and a total, with the full matchup listing around 40 markets in total.  

Prices appear two ways at once. A Dodgers-Reds game showed the Dodgers at 62 percent and the Reds at 39 percent, while a Brewers-Pirates game showed the same information as a payout, with 100 dollars returning 172 on Milwaukee or 233 on Pittsburgh. 

That dual display is worth understanding. The percentage is the market’s implied probability, the dollar figure is what a position pays if it settles in your favor, and the two sides of a market can sum to slightly above 100 because buying and selling prices are not identical. 

Each card also carries a running price history. The Dodgers and Reds market plots both sides over the preceding day, which makes it possible to see whether a price drifted or jumped before first pitch.

Where the models diverge 

This is the sharpest contrast between the two models. It comes from how each company handles the overlap between event contracts and its own sportsbook. 

At launch, FanDuel Predicts offered baseball contracts only in states where online sports betting was not yet legal, and not on tribal lands.  

The companies stated that as new states legalized online sports betting, FanDuel Predicts would stop offering sports event contracts in those states. 

Fanatics Markets runs sports as its central category rather than as a gap-filler. Baseball sits alongside football, basketball, hockey, tennis, soccer, golf, esports, fighting, motorsports and sailing, with crypto, politics, culture and economy markets arranged around them. 

The result is two different answers to the same regulatory question. One treats event contracts as a way to reach markets a sportsbook cannot serve; the other treats the exchange as the product in its own right. 

Futures and season-long markets 

Baseball also shows how each platform handles longer horizons. The Fanatics board carries division winner markets running through the season, including NL West, AL Central and NL East. 

Those work on the same mechanic as a single game. A Dodgers contract in the NL West market showed 89 percent, with 100 dollars returning 112, which is what a heavily favored position looks like when most of the outcome is already priced in. 

Volumes differ sharply between the two types. Individual games on the board ranged from a few hundred dollars up to 13,000 on the day, with attention concentrating on a small number of matchups rather than spreading evenly. 

Division markets sit quieter but stay open far longer. That gives a different kind of exposure, since a season-long contract can be sold at any point rather than resolving in three hours. 

The contract count differs by sport too. An MLB game on the board carries around 40 markets, while a Premier League fixture shows roughly 57, which reflects how many distinct outcomes each sport generates.

Conclusion 

FanDuel and Fanatics Markets both offer baseball event contracts, and they arrived at that point from opposite directions.  

One is a partnership-led app that steps back from sports where its sportsbook operates; the other is a sports-first exchange running under its own regulated entity. 

For anyone deciding where to participate, the practical questions are whether the platform operates in your state and which categories it treats as core.  

Trading event contracts involves risk and is not appropriate for everyone, and neither model changes that. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Are baseball prediction markets the same as sports betting? 

No, they are structurally different. Prediction market contracts are regulated as event contracts under the CFTC framework and trade at prices that move, whereas a sportsbook offers a fixed price accepted at the point of placement. 

Who regulates each platform? 

Fanatics Markets operates through a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant that is an NFA member, with contracts offered through Crypto.com Derivatives North America. FanDuel Predicts launched in partnership with CME Group, which acted as the exchange venue. 

Why did FanDuel restrict baseball contracts by state? 

At launch, the company offered sports contracts only where online sports betting was not yet legal, and said it would withdraw them as states legalized it. That keeps the prediction product from competing with its own sportsbook. 

What does a percentage next to a team mean? 

It represents the market’s current estimate of the probability that the outcome occurs. A team shown at 62 percent implies roughly a 62 percent chance based on where contracts are trading at that moment. 

Why do the two sides add up to more than 100 percent? 

Because buying and selling prices are not identical, so the quoted figures on each side of a market include that gap. It is the same reason a quoted spread exists in any traded instrument. 

How many markets exist on one MLB game? 

The current board shows roughly 40 contracts per game. That count covers the moneyline, the run line spread, and the total, along with the other team and player outcomes listed for the game.