How Robinhood prediction markets work
Robinhood doesn’t run its own betting book. When you buy an event contract in the app, Robinhood Derivatives, LLC (its CFTC-registered futures broker) sends the order to an exchange. Its support pages name Kalshi, ForecastEx, Rothera and Nadex. Rothera is an exchange Robinhood controls with Susquehanna, which it bought in January 2026 and started routing trades to in June. Since September 8, 2026, some football contracts also go to Crypto.com and OG.com, although the support pages don’t list those two yet.
For you it works like any prediction market. Each contract pays $1 if the event happens and nothing if it doesn’t, so a price of 40¢ means the market thinks there’s about a 40% chance. You can only place limit orders, which means you set the most you’ll pay, and the order either fills straight away or expires at 3 AM Eastern the next day.
Fees
This is Robinhood’s weak spot. Since June 1, 2026 its commission is 10% × price × (1 − price) for each contract, or 5% if you pay for Robinhood Gold, and the exchange charges its own fee on top. The formula charges the most at 50¢, so take a $100 trade at that price. That buys 200 contracts, and the commission is 10% × 0.5 × 0.5 × 200 = $5.00. If the trade goes to Kalshi, add $0.01 per contract, which is another $2.00. With Gold, the commission halves to $2.50.
Robinhood’s own pages don’t all agree. Its tax help article still quotes the old flat fee of $0.01 per contract, and its June 4 announcement says fees never go above $0.01 per contract. The fee schedule PDF above is the legal document, so we’ve used it, but check the cost the app shows before you confirm a trade.
What you can trade
The prediction markets hub has more than 20 categories. Sports covers pro and college football and basketball, baseball, tennis, soccer, golf, MMA, boxing, cricket, racing and esports. Outside sports there are economics, politics and the midterms, crypto, metals and other commodities, climate, tech, entertainment and even chess. On September 29, 2026 Robinhood announced company earnings contracts through Cboe, which need options approval on your account.
You can also build combos, where several outcomes go into one trade and all of them have to happen for it to pay. Robinhood offers preset combos and lets you build your own with up to 10 picks.
Deposits and withdrawals
Event contracts use their own buying power, which Robinhood tops up from your brokerage cash automatically. You fund the account by bank transfer (1 to 5 business days), debit card or wire. Instant Deposits may not count toward event contracts, so a new bank transfer can keep you waiting.
When an event ends, the payout usually settles a day later and shows in your buying power the next business day. To get it out, you move it back to your brokerage account and withdraw from there. Robinhood doesn’t state a minimum deposit for event contracts.
Where it’s available
You need to be 18 or older, live in the US and have a Robinhood brokerage account plus an approved Robinhood Derivatives account. Robinhood’s two help pages disagree on Maryland. One says Maryland residents can’t trade event contracts at all, the other says only sports contracts are blocked, so we’ve marked Maryland as unavailable. Sports contracts are off in Nevada, and since September 9, 2026 Michigan residents can’t open new sports positions.
The app and support
Trading happens only in the Robinhood phone app, which has a 4.3 rating from about 4.9 million reviews on the App Store. The website shows markets but won’t let you trade. Support is by 24/7 chat in the app, and you can ask for a phone callback between 7 AM and 9 PM Eastern. You can hide sports markets with a toggle in settings, or ask support to exclude you from event contracts entirely.
Taxes
Robinhood doesn’t issue a 1099 for event contracts and doesn’t report them to the IRS. It shows your profit and loss in the app and on your annual statement, but working out what you owe is up to you. Speak to a tax professional if you trade a lot.
Who it suits
If you already have Robinhood and want to try a few trades on games or the Fed, it’s the easiest place to start, because there’s nothing new to sign up for. If you’ll trade often, the commission adds up quickly. The same $100 trade at 50¢ costs $3.50 in fees on Kalshi, against $7.00 on Robinhood when the order goes to Kalshi.