IG Group seeks Gambling Commission licence for prediction markets
The trading group behind the $1.3bn Underdog acquisition has applied to the Gambling Commission for a betting licence, as prediction markets edge toward the regulated UK gambling sector.
IG Group, the London-listed trading firm that bought US prediction market and daily fantasy sports operator Underdog earlier this year, has applied to the Gambling Commission for a UK betting licence, according to EGR.
The application was filed by IG View Limited, a subsidiary registered at IG Group's 88 Wood Street head office in London. It is seeking a general betting standard – real event licence, currently listed as pending on the Commission's register.
The chosen trading name on the application is "ig prediction markets", with the domain listed as ig.com.
IG Group already holds Financial Conduct Authority permissions covering activities such as spread betting and crypto trading. The company is run by chief executive Breon Corcoran, who previously led Paddy Power Betfair.
The Underdog deal, struck earlier this year, is worth up to $1.3bn including an initial payment of $1.1bn. Underdog began as a daily fantasy sports business before expanding into prediction markets and acquiring exchange operator Aristotle Exchange, which brought its trading infrastructure in-house.
IG Group told investors this month that Underdog's 2025 revenue reached $441m, up from $271m the year before. In the third quarter of 2026, Underdog revenue rose by more than 100% year on year to roughly $105m, IG Group said, with stakes per customer up 165%, average deposits per customer up 109% and monthly active users up 13%.
Prediction markets have expanded rapidly in the US since the 2024 presidential election, with sports-related contracts gaining particular momentum through early 2025. The same enthusiasm has not translated to the UK or much of Europe, where liberalised sports betting and casino markets already exist and betting exchanges have operated since 2000.
Gambling Commission director of strategy Brad Enright addressed the sector in a February blog post, arguing that prediction markets function much like UK betting exchanges and can already be captured under the existing betting intermediary licence. He wrote that the commercial conditions driving US uptake, including a fragmented state-by-state approach to legal sports betting, are unlikely to apply in Great Britain, where a single regulatory framework already covers the whole market.
Betfair remains the dominant platform in the UK betting exchange segment. EGR reported that Matchbook completed its acquisition of rival exchange Betdaq on the same day as IG Group's licence application became known, narrowing the field of established challengers to Smarkets.
EGR said it had contacted IG Group for comment on the licence application.