Sportsbooks and financial platforms are rapidly expanding into prediction markets, just in time for you to spend the holidays scrolling for dopamine hits on the couch. Yesterday, DraftKings became the latest entrant to the market, launching a standalone app for yes-or-no wagers on sports and financial events.

The new platform, DraftKings Predictions, is being rolled out in 38 states. Sports contracts will be available in 17 of those, but not in states where users can already bet with the company’s regular sportsbook.

Earlier this week…

• Coinbase, the biggest crypto exchange in the US, announced that it’ll soon integrate stock-trading and Kalshi’s prediction markets into its app.
• The trading platform Robinhood, which added event contracts late last year, rolled out NFL prediction wagers resembling parlays and prop bets.

Earlier this month…the sports apparel giant Fanatics partnered with Crypto.com to roll out a prediction market. And FanDuel—the largest sportsbook in the US—said it will debut a prediction market app by the end of December.

The new gold rush

Monthly bets placed on prediction market leaders Kalshi and Polymarket skyrocketed from less than $100 million in early 2024 to $13+ billion this November. Early adopters, like Robinhood, are reaping the benefits of bandwagoning:

• Robinhood credits prediction markets as its fastest-growing business.
• The company’s stock is up more than 200% in 2025, largely because of its foray into prediction markets, Mizuho analyst Dan Dolev told CNBC.

Strategically…prediction markets give trading platforms like Robinhood and Coinbase a fresh opportunity to elicit funds from their users. It may be more do-or-die for sportsbooks.

Zoom out: Online sports betting is legal in 31 states. Prediction markets, which are regulated federally, unlike traditional gambling, have launched in all 50 states. Legal battles are ongoing—this week, Coinbase said it’s suing three states over their attempts to regulate prediction markets. Quarrels between state agencies and prediction market operators could reach the Supreme Court next year, Bloomberg Intelligence predicts.—ML

Justice Department releases first batch of Epstein files. The DOJ released tens of thousands of documents yesterday from its investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein because Congress passed a law last month requiring the public disclosure of all related files within 30 days. The newly released materials include photographs of celebrities, including former President Bill Clinton. According to news outlets, President Trump does not feature much in the documents. However, many documents are heavily redacted, and the DOJ has said there were too many to process, so it will continue releasing materials over the next few weeks. Democratic lawmakers have criticized that delay as illegal.—AR

Elon Musk’s massive 2018 pay package got reinstated. Yesterday, the Delaware Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s ruling that barred Elon Musk from receiving a performance-contingent stock pay package—now worth a whopping $140 billion—that Tesla’s board gave him in 2018. Previously, the Delaware Chancery Court sided with a minority Tesla shareholder who sued the EV-maker alleging that its board was improperly influenced by Musk when awarding him the compensation package, which was unfair to investors. Yesterday’s unanimous ruling lets Musk have his bag because blocking the pay package left him “uncompensated for his time and efforts” as Tesla CEO. The decision ends a seven-year legal battle that prompted Musk to yank Tesla out of corporate America’s favorite state to incorporate in and call on others to do the same.—SK

A Reddit post helped police find the Brown University shooting suspect. While they’re certainly dedicated, Reddit sleuths aren’t always Sherlock-level detectives—but court documents show that a poster helped lead investigators to the suspect in the Brown University shooting that killed two students. “He blew this case right open,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said. The Reddit user, called only “John” in court papers, posted that he’d seen a “grey Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental” near the crime scene. Fellow Redditors urged him to contact the FBI, which he did, telling investigators of his strange encounters with the suspected shooter. His tip ultimately led authorities to connect the suspect to the car, and to the murder of an MIT professor they had previously believed to be unrelated. Authorities said the suspect was found dead from a self-inflicted wound on Thursday night.—AR

Sony is shelling out a lot of money for Peanuts. Yesterday, the Japanese conglomerate announced a $457 million deal to take majority ownership of Peanuts Holdings, the company with the rights to Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the gang.

The franchise has been around for 75 years, but Sony thinks there’s room for Snoopy to fly higher (which makes sense, given his heroics as a pilot in World War I). As part of the deal:

• Sony, which already owned 39% of Peanuts Holdings, will buy another 41% from Canadian media company WildBrain, the owner of Teletubbies and Strawberry Shortcake.
• The family of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz will own the remaining 20%.
• The franchise is valued at more than $1 billion.

My own dog, gone commercial: The Peanuts gang has gone from the funny pages to TV shows, theme parks, and countless consumer goods. It’s the kind of IP that Sony wants more of, especially as it tries to build global franchises that span platforms, like the video game/TV show The Last of Us.

In other words, prepare yourself for a theme park ride based on a PlayStation game inspired by The Snoopy Show.—BC