Robinhood Shifts Some World Cup Bets to Rothera, Reducing Reliance on Kalshi
Taylor Wilson
Robinhood is routing part of its World Cup prediction contracts to Rothera, an exchange it co-owns, using the world's biggest sporting event as a stress test to diversify away from a single supplier.
What exactly is happening?
Robinhood is shifting some event contracts across 104 World Cup matches from Kalshi to Rothera.
Rothera is a U.S. derivatives exchange; Robinhood and Susquehanna International Group acquired a majority stake last year.
This means → Robinhood is no longer just reselling another platform's contracts — it is starting to run volume through an exchange it controls.
Why use the World Cup as the proving ground?
Prediction markets are Robinhood's fastest-growing product — over 16 billion event contracts processed this year, already surpassing the 12 billion traded in all of 2025.
VP and GM JB Mackenzie called the World Cup "one of the largest trading events ever."
In plain terms = the bigger the event, the harder the stress test — if Rothera can handle peak World Cup traffic, it is ready for real-world scale.
What does this mean for Kalshi?
Bernstein analysis shows Robinhood users accounted for nearly one-quarter of Kalshi's total volume in March.
Kalshi's market tracking the World Cup champion has already exceeded $76 million in volume.
This means → every contract Robinhood reroutes to Rothera directly cuts into Kalshi's volume and fee revenue.
How will contracts be split between platforms?
Mackenzie said routing decisions during the tournament will depend on market liquidity and clarity of outcome determination.
Contracts routed through Rothera will carry lower fees than those via Kalshi or other platforms.
In plain terms = orders flow to whichever platform offers better pricing and cleaner settlement at the time — and Rothera, as an in-house exchange, has a built-in cost edge.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.