Robinhood to roll back Super Bowl event contracts at the request of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), just days after announcing their Super Bowl offering.
The Pro Football Championship event contract launched on February 3, 2025, in partnership with Kalshi, and would allow users to bet on the end result of the Super Bowl at the weekend.
However, the regulator pushed the brokerage to call off the contracts amidst concerns that it was not allowed by law.
Lucas Moskowitz, Robinhood’s general counsel, said: “We are heeding their directive to cease offering these contracts despite the fact that the CFTC has not deemed Kalshi’s football championship contracts illegal.”
In a tweet by Robinhood, the betting operator revealed how they launched the product to 1% of their consumer base. It explained that customers with trades already placed will soon be able to close the trade to resolve them.
Kalshi previously sent a submission to the CFTC for approval in January 2025, seeking to introduce sports event prediction contracts, a request Robinhood acknowledged in a blog post.
Robinhood, alongside Kalshi, argued that the platform would “leverage the power and rigor of the financial market structure to facilitate greater liquidity, transparency, and price discovery.”
As reported by Reuters, a spokesperson for the CFTC said: “The CFTC has serious concerns about FCMs offering access to their customers to any contract that may not be permissible under the law and will exercise its oversight authority to the fullest extent as appropriate.”
“FCMs have strict duties and obligations pursuant to the CFTC’s customer protection rules and are held to the highest standards to safeguard the public.”
The contracts would have been available on Kalshi’s forums, and hold trading opportunities from 8 A.M to 3 P.M ET in the days leading up to the Super Bowl.
Robinhood has expressed plans to launch a “more comprehensive” platform for event contracts sometime in 2025.