# DraftKings Predictions vs FanDuel Predicts vs Underdog Predict: three ownership shapes behind three sports logos The same-looking apps put you in three different legal relationships, which set the fee curve, the rulebook, where your cash sits and which state map applies. *https://predictionmarkets.tools/compare/sports-operator-prediction-apps* - https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/draftkings-predictions.md - https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/fanduel-predicts.md - https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/underdog-predict.md ## The logo is not the party you sign with The three cards above read like three of a kind: a sports company's event-contract app, US only, 18 and over, no API, a fee around two cents. The page on [Kalshi, Polymarket US and Robinhood](https://predictionmarkets.tools/compare/us-event-contract-venues) explains the general point that a broker is not an exchange. These three add the complication that the sports company also owns pieces of the plumbing — and owns *different* pieces in each case: - **[DraftKings Predictions](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/draftkings-predictions) owns the broker and one of the exchanges.** The account is with GUS III LLC, a futures commission merchant since 14 July 2026 (before that an introducing broker on Wedbush). It routes to DKeX — Railbird Exchange, a designated contract market DraftKings bought in October 2025 — and also to Crypto.com's North American Derivatives Exchange and to CME. DraftKings does not own the clearinghouse behind DKeX: that is Bitnomial. - **[FanDuel Predicts](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/fanduel-predicts) owns half the broker and no exchange.** FanDuel Prediction Markets LLC is an FCM owned jointly by FanDuel and CME Group. CME-listed contracts reach the clearinghouse through an omnibus account at an unaffiliated clearing FCM, Plus500US; since June 2026 the FCM is also a direct member of Crypto.com's exchange. Here it is the exchange operator that owns half of the broker, not the other way round. - **[Underdog Predict](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/underdog-predict) owns all three layers and keeps its own broker off its own exchange.** Underdog bought Aristotle Exchange's DCM and DCO in March 2026, launched trading on them on 18 July 2026 and renamed them on 31 August 2026. UDX's rulebook bars any FCM from submitting orders, so a UDX trade makes you a participant of the exchange directly. Its FCM, UDM, exists for the other route, to Kalshi. So the question a reader actually faces is not "which sports brand", it is "which relationship will this market put me in". In two of the three apps the answer changes from one market to the next, and only the rules link on the market says which. One detail the three cards share without saying so: **Crypto.com's exchange sits behind all three.** DraftKings lists its "CDNA and DKeX Markets" in one fee column, FanDuel added Crypto.com-listed sports and combination contracts in June 2026, and Underdog's disclaimers still name it, although UDM's own disclosure says its member agreement there "is not operational at this time". If you want those markets without a sports company in front of them, [Crypto.com](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/crypto-com-prediction-markets) sells them in its own app. ## The fee, priced across the curve The headline numbers look the same — 2 cents, 2%, 1.75 cents — because each app quotes the one point where they converge. Per contract, per side, for an order that takes liquidity: - **At 50 cents.** DraftKings 2¢ on every route. FanDuel 2¢. Underdog on UDX 1.75¢; Underdog on the Kalshi route about 2.75¢ — UDM's 1¢ commission with Kalshi's own 1.75¢ exchange fee passed through on top. - **At 10 cents.** DraftKings about 0.76¢ on DKeX and Crypto.com markets, 1¢ on CME markets. FanDuel 2¢. Underdog on UDX about 0.63¢; on the Kalshi route about 1.63¢. - **At 95 cents.** DraftKings 1.5¢ on DKeX and Crypto.com markets, 1¢ on CME. FanDuel 2¢. Underdog on UDX about a third of a cent. The shapes are what differ. UDX charges the Kalshi-shaped curve — `0.07 × price × (1 − price)` for a taker and a quarter of that for a maker — which collapses towards both ends. DraftKings charges a sliding table that also falls at the ends but bottoms out sooner, and folds its FCM commission and the exchange fee into one figure. FanDuel publishes one sentence, "a 2% transaction fee is included at checkout based on your potential payout", which read literally is 2¢ on a $1 contract at any price — 20% of the stake on a 10¢ contract. It publishes no table and no worked example, and its customer agreement allows exchange and regulatory fees on top of commissions without saying whether the 2% includes them. That reading is the card's, not FanDuel's. Rounding moves the small orders. DraftKings rounds each order's total **up** to the next cent, so one 1¢ contract pays a full cent. UDX rounds per trade to the nearest cent, half to even, so a single 50¢ taker contract pays 2¢ and a single 1¢ or 99¢ contract pays nothing. Only UDX distinguishes a resting order from a taking one; DraftKings and FanDuel charge the same either way. On every published figure, **FanDuel is never below DraftKings and Underdog's UDX route is never the dearest.** The one route that loses at mid-range prices is Underdog's own other one, to Kalshi, and it sits in the same app as the cheapest. ## Where the money sits between trades This is the axis the cards have to bury in Limitations, and the one the reader is least likely to check. - **DraftKings and FanDuel** hold your account at a futures commission merchant. FanDuel's FCM says it does not currently invest customer funds and describes no interest paid. On FanDuel's CME route a second FCM, Plus500US, carries the position in an omnibus account between FanDuel's FCM and the clearinghouse. - **Underdog, Kalshi route.** UDM's account agreement requires a linked Underdog Fantasy account; the FCM account can only be funded from it, withdrawals start from it, and by default excess cash is swept back into it at the end of every trading day. Money there is not segregated customer money under CFTC rules and is not SIPC- or FDIC-insured. The sweep can be switched off by asking support. The same agreement asks for a $1,000 net liquidating balance across the two accounts, below which UDM may restrict the account to closing trades. - **Underdog, UDX route.** No broker at all: you sign the exchange's Participant Agreement with the DCM and the DCO and post the full cost of each position up front. That is a different relationship from being an FCM's customer, with different documents and protections, and the card does not claim one is stronger than the other. Underdog is therefore two custody arrangements in one app, chosen market by market, and the nightly sweep belongs to only one of them. ## Which state rules bite The legal relationship decides which map applies, and the three apps publish three kinds of map. **FanDuel states a rule, and the rule is built around its own sportsbook.** Financial, commodity and crypto contracts are offered in all 50 states, DC and five territories. Sports and entertainment contracts are offered only in states where FanDuel does not run an online sportsbook — 18 as of 30 June 2026, California, Texas and Florida among them — and withdrawn from each state that legalizes one. A reader who holds a FanDuel Sportsbook account because it is licensed where they live is, by construction, in a state where FanDuel Predicts will not sell them a sports contract. **DraftKings publishes a map and no rule.** As read on 3 October 2026: 17 states with every market, 21 jurisdictions without sports markets (New York, New Jersey, Michigan and Massachusetts among them), Connecticut with financial markets only, and 12 states with nothing at all, including Arizona, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Nevada. Residence and physical location both have to pass. In those 12 states FanDuel still offers its non-sports contracts and DraftKings offers nothing. **Underdog publishes no state list that could be read.** Its disclaimers require a US resident present in a state where Underdog Predict operates, and its help-centre page on the subject could not be read for the card. Check the app before relying on a single state. Both FanDuel's and Underdog's broker disclosures warn that if courts decide states may restrict sports event contracts, positions there could be closed out early or become untradeable. That risk attaches to the sports contracts, whichever route carried them. ## Who decides the outcome None of the three apps resolves a contract itself; the exchange does, and the exchange varies. DraftKings has **three rulebooks** behind one app: DKeX's (with an outcome review process in rule 7.1), Crypto.com's and CME's. A sports market on DKeX and one on Crypto.com's exchange can look identical on the screen and resolve under different procedures. FanDuel's contracts settle under CME's rules or Crypto.com's. Underdog's UDX contracts name a **Source Agency hierarchy** in each contract's filed terms — an NFL contract filed on 21 September 2026 lists the NFL first, then ESPN, CBS Sports, Fox Sports, the Associated Press and others — while its Kalshi-routed markets resolve under Kalshi's rulebook. The documents lag the structure in two of the three, which matters when you go looking for the rule. DraftKings' Terms of 4 August 2026 still describe trades processed by Wedbush, three weeks after its own FCM took over. UDX's fee schedule, rulebook and footer still read "Aristotle Exchange DCM, Inc." after the 31 August rename. ## The other two shapes, for contrast Two shapes in this category have no sports operator in them, and they bracket these three. **The brand is a broker onto someone else's exchange.** [PrizePicks Predict](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/prizepicks-predict), [Coinbase](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/coinbase-prediction-markets) and [Webull](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/webull-prediction-markets) each run their own FCM in front of KalshiEX and own no part of where the contract trades — Coinbase owns a DCM and routes nothing to it. That is the [Robinhood](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/robinhood-prediction-markets) shape, and it is the one the other comparison prices. **The brand is the exchange, and you join it directly.** [Gemini Predictions](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/gemini-predictions) admits retail traders as self-clearing members of its own DCM and DCO; [Novig](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/novig) and [ProphetX](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/prophetx) are sports exchanges with no broker layer, ProphetX its own clearinghouse. Underdog's UDX route is this shape, sitting inside an app that also contains the broker shape. ## Which to use, and when to switch **For sports contracts, use Underdog on markets listed on UDX, in a state where it operates.** It is the cheapest curve of the three at every price, the only one with a lower rate for a resting order, and no broker commission can sit on top because the rulebook keeps brokers off the exchange. Two conditions come with it. Check each market's rules link, because the moment a market sits on the Kalshi route it is the dearest of the three at mid-range prices — and at that point [Kalshi](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/kalshi) direct, without UDM's commission, is the cheaper door to the same contract. And if you do use the Kalshi route, ask for the nightly sweep to be switched off unless you are content for idle cash to leave CFTC segregation every evening. **Use DraftKings when you want sports and non-sports contracts in one account**, live in one of its 17 all-markets states, or want CME's financial contracts at the 1¢ ends of its table. Expect three rulebooks and documents that trail the structure. **Use FanDuel only where the other two cannot reach you** — non-sports contracts in a state where DraftKings offers nothing, such as Arizona, Illinois, Ohio or Pennsylvania. Its 2% of payout is never below DraftKings' fee at any price, only equal to it at mid-range, and what it includes is undisclosed. That map is the single reason to choose it, and it is a real one. ## FAQ ### Which of the three owns the exchange my contract trades on? It depends on the app and on the market. DraftKings owns DKeX, formerly Railbird Exchange, but also routes to Crypto.com's exchange and to CME. FanDuel owns no exchange; CME Group, which lists most of its contracts, owns half of FanDuel's broker. Underdog owns UDX, formerly Aristotle Exchange, and its clearinghouse, but also routes markets to Kalshi. The rules link on each market names the exchange. ### Which is cheapest? On published numbers, Underdog on markets listed on its own exchange — 1.75 cents a contract for a taker at 50 cents, falling toward zero at the ends, and a quarter of that for a resting order that fills. DraftKings charges 2 cents at mid-range prices and less at the ends. FanDuel publishes 2% of the potential payout, which read literally is 2 cents at any price. Underdog's Kalshi-routed markets are the dearest of all at mid-range, about 2.75 cents. ### Do I need a sportsbook or fantasy account to use these? DraftKings and FanDuel do not use the sportsbook account as the trading account — each opens a separate one with its own futures commission merchant. FanDuel lets existing customers sign in with their FanDuel login and shares deposit limits and self-exclusion. Underdog is different, because its broker can only be funded from, and by default sweeps excess cash back into, a linked Underdog Fantasy account. ### My FanDuel Sportsbook works in my state. Why are there no sports contracts in FanDuel Predicts? Because that is FanDuel's stated rule. It offers sports and entertainment contracts only in states where it does not run an online sportsbook — 18 states as of 30 June 2026, including California, Texas and Florida — and withdraws them from a state once it legalizes online sportsbooks. Financial, commodity and crypto contracts are offered in all 50 states. ### Is my money protected the same way in all three? No. DraftKings and FanDuel hold your account at a futures commission merchant. Underdog's Kalshi route does too, but by default sweeps excess cash each night into the fantasy account, where it is not segregated customer money under CFTC rules. On Underdog's own exchange you are a participant of the exchange and its clearinghouse, with no broker in between, under a different agreement.