IG Group has applied for a UK Gambling Commission licence as it prepares to launch a prediction markets product, confirming plans to go live with financial event contracts in the fourth quarter of 2026. The FTSE 100 trading firm will extend the offering to sports, politics and entertainment markets in early 2027, marking its return to UK sports betting for the first time in 16 years.
What happened
IG Group set out its prediction markets strategy at a Capital Markets Event held in London on 22 October.
Healy revealed IG Group’s plans at a Capital Markets Event held that day.
IG Group Holdings plc will launch financial prediction markets for UK professional clients in the fourth quarter of 2026, with a UK gambling licence application and plans to broaden its markets into politics, entertainment and sports in early 2027.
The Gambling Commission’s public register shows a pending application under the name IG View Limited, with a head office at 88 Wood Street, London, covering a remote General Betting Standard – Real Event licence marked as in progress.
The rollout will run through IG Consumer, the group’s retail investing arm.
IG Consumer Chief Executive Officer Michael Healy said the firm will combine predictions, crypto and traditional trading into one unified, in-house platform.
The move follows IG’s acquisition of US daily fantasy sports and prediction markets operator Underdog, agreed for up to
approximately $1.3 billion
, announced on 30 July 2026. That deal is
on track to complete in late 2026 or early 2027
. IG last operated in sports betting through its Extrabet unit, which
shut down in 2011, when it sold the majority of its customer list to betting exchange Spreadex
.
IG cited internal research to justify the move, pointing to consumer demand already flowing to offshore platforms.
The survey found that 84 per cent of active UK investors find prediction markets appealing, and the company added that UK prediction markets demand is going offshore, citing data showing around two million UK visits to offshore prediction market platforms in April, up 377 per cent in two years.
Why it matters
IG’s entry brings a well-capitalised, publicly listed financial services brand into direct competition with established sportsbooks and the growing cohort of US-style prediction market operators. The firm is not launching from scratch: it already holds a large base of active traders and plans to cross-sell prediction contracts across
an IG Consumer arm that has spent 18 months building its core digital infrastructure onto a single international platform combining CFDs, spread betting, share dealing, crypto and predictions.
For operators, this signals that prediction markets are maturing from a US regulatory curiosity into a product category that financial trading firms view as adjacent to their existing customer base. IG’s own research put the matter starkly, with
the prediction markets revenue pool estimated at roughly four times US online sports betting, though based on projections at maturity rather than current revenue
. That scale of ambition is likely to prompt established gambling operators to reassess how they compete for the same attention and marketing spend.
IG also flagged the regulatory complexity it will need to navigate. Executives acknowledged that
financial events fall under the FCA while other categories require Gambling Commission licensing, for which IG has applied, alongside the retail ban on binary options and the established gambling tax regime.
That dual-regulator structure is a novel compliance challenge that few incumbents in UK gambling have had to manage.
For affiliates, a new entrant backed by Sky Sports advertising spend represents a fresh source of player-acquisition competition and potential partnership opportunity.
The firm will run a targeted marketing campaign about consumers being able to “trade better” on the platform, with the ad set to hit UK screens on channels including Sky Sports next month.
Affiliates operating in the sports and finance crossover space may find IG’s brand recognition and existing customer data give it an unusual acquisition advantage over typical sportsbook challengers.
The bigger picture
IG’s UK plans sit within a broader global push by trading platforms to capture prediction markets volume, following the pattern set in the US where exchanges and brokerages have raced to add event contracts.
IG Group has spent nearly two decades trying to predict the prediction market business, including buying HedgeStreet in 2007, rebranding it as Nadex, and later selling Nadex to Crypto.com.
The Underdog acquisition represents its most committed attempt yet to establish a durable position in the category.
The UK launch also comes as IG undergoes a wider strategic reset.
The group’s outcomes of its strategic review include a proposed redomicile to Jersey, expected to become effective in late 2026 or early 2027, subject to court approval.
Management has framed the prediction markets push as part of a cultural shift at the company, moving from caution around complex regulation toward actively pursuing demonstrated customer demand within regulatory limits.
Whether IG can translate its trading-platform credibility into sustained engagement with sports and political betting products remains to be seen, particularly given the dual oversight of the FCA and Gambling Commission. The outcome will be closely watched by both financial services firms eyeing gambling-adjacent products and gambling operators assessing a new category of competitor.
For more on how operators and product strategies are shifting across regulated markets, see our coverage of SkyCity’s online licence push.
Sources
- SBC News – Can IG Group stick the landing on UK prediction markets launch?
- SBC News – IG Group confident of UK prediction market launch in 2026
- InterGame Online – IG Group confirms Q4 launch for UK prediction markets arm
- Gaming.net – IG Group Plans UK Prediction Markets Launch With Gambling Licence Bid
- European Gaming – IG’s $1.3bn Underdog deal: Buying a licence stack, not earnings
- InterGame Online – IG Group confirms prediction markets acquisition
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