Prediction Markets Take Center Stage At Next.io 'Emerging Verticals' Summit - Even Without Polymarket & Kalshi Present

Mar 9th, 2026 5:42 PM EDT

Bookies.Com

NEW YORK – Polymarket and Kalshi emerged as the stars at the Next.io “Emerging Verticals” Summit Monday. The dominant topic du jour was prediction markets. Neither operator was visible on site. Polymarket head of GTM Strategy Michael Wenner had been scheduled to participate in a panel but was scrubbed.

Meanwhile, both platforms were instead listed as Platinum Sponsors at the FIA Global Cleared Markets Conference in Boca Raton, Florida. Who can blame them? New Yorkers enjoyed an early taste of spring Monday with soft blue skies and temperatures in the 60s. Meanwhile, the posh crowd in Boca basked in 80-degree Florida sunshine.

The forecast for prediction markets served up today by several panelists here was mostly sunny with a 50% chance of federal regulation and/or a definitive Supreme Court decision within 2 years.

“The Supreme Court’s going to sort it out, and they’ll decide,” said attorney Bill Gantz, a partner at law firm Duane Morris LP during a panel.

But no one would dare give a prediction on what form prediction markets may take once their current legal conflagrations are settled.

The probability that the attorneys involved will continue to make bank in the interim remains trading at 99 cents to win $1.

Novig, Sporttrade Offer Prediction Market Alternative

Both Novig and Sporttrade have until now tried to thrive outside the CFTC-regulated prediction market space. Sporttrade has operated state-regulated platforms in a handful of jurisdictions. Novig once tried the state-by-state approach but met with regulatory obstinance. The company founded by Jacob Fortinsky currently operates via a dual-currency platform.

Now both operators are seeking Commodities Futures Trading Corporation approval that would allow them to offer sports event contracts in all 50 states.

More than half-a-dozen states are wrestling with prediction market operators in court over the issue of sports event contracts. Kalshi broke that glass when it self-certified to offer those products ahead of last year’s Super Bowl. This year, Kalshi traded more than $914 million on The Big Game in both play and non-play markets.

A Distinction Without A Difference?

Traditional sports betting operators such as DraftKings, Fanatics, and FanDuel have launched prediction market platforms. The companies offer sports event contracts in states in which they are not currently licensed. That means California, Florida, Texas, and Georgia. Among others.

Both Kane and Fortinsky remain unbowed by the movement of DraftKings and the others into the prediction market space. They remain focused on their own plaforms.

Kane and Fortinsky disagreed about the value of players being able to move in and out of trades during a game. Kane viewed it as transformative for the traditional better.

“People bet on sports because it’s fun. They want to put some money on their favorite team. I hate to break it to you, but the majority of sports fans in the U.S. already bet on sports. They want a better version of what already exists today,” Fortinsky said.

From 0 To $105 Million In 5 Years

Fortinsky co-founded Novig just 5 years ago while attending Harvard. Three years ago, he made his first appearance at the Next.io Summit. “When I first came here and met Alex, I was nervous. I was a big fan,” Fortinsky told Bookies.com. “And now, we’re trading $4 billion a year.”

On February 18, his company announced $75 million in Series B funding. That brings the company’s total to $105 million in funding. Novig – backed by NFL Hall of Famer Joe Montana - saw its volume 10X in 2025, reaching $4 billion. That came following its application with the CFTC to operate a federally regulated exchange.

When all is said and done, Fortinsky believes the late-2020s will be viewed as a time “in which the federal government legalized sports betting in all 50 states under a financial regulatory exchange framework.”

Fortinsky fired a stray at Robinhood. He called the operator’s sports prediction platform an expletive for excrement during his panel with Kane and Gantz. And he subsequently blasted regulators and tradtional sports betting operators.

“They made a deliberate decision that they don’t want to regulate,” he said.

Prediction Markets Take Center Stage At Next.io 'Emerging Verticals' Summit - Even Without Polymarket & Kalshi Present

Novig, Sporttrade Offer Prediction Market Alternative

A Distinction Without A Difference?

From 0 To $105 Million In 5 Years

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