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Sporttrade will shut down online betting operations in the U.S. after years of trying to build a sports trading model inside a market built mostly for traditional sportsbooks.
Good to Know
Sporttrade informed customers on Friday that access will end soon across all active U.S. sports betting markets. Any account balance left after the deadlines will be sent by mail, based on account information listed by each customer.
The decision cuts short a long attempt to blend sports betting with exchange-style trading. Sporttrade launched in New Jersey in 2022 after being founded in 2018, giving users sports contracts well before Kalshi added sports event contracts for the 2025 Super Bowl.
Only three months ago, Sporttrade still aimed at a different future. The company filed with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for approval as both a designated contract market and derivatives clearing organization.
Alex Kane, founder and CEO of Sporttrade, sounded optimistic after the filing. He said:
“Today marks the opening of an incredibly exciting chapter of the Sporttrade journey.”
“The CFTC’s market-based regulatory framework enables Sporttrade to provide market participants an elevated level of efficiency, transparency, and consumer protection relative to what we’ve been able to offer to date.”
Work on the CFTC application began last April and ran close to one year. Sporttrade needed separate approval for an exchange and a clearinghouse, while rivals in the prediction market space already had more room to operate nationally.
That difference hurt. Kalshi and Polymarket became leading names in prediction markets, while Sporttrade stayed tied to state-by-state sports betting approval. Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, New Jersey and Virginia became the active markets, but the structure never gave Sporttrade the nationwide reach that CFTC-approved operators can pursue.
Sporttrade also ran into a regulatory setup that did not fit cleanly. State gaming compacts were built around standard sportsbooks, not sports exchanges. Meanwhile, the CFTC opposed sports event contracts before President Donald Trump returned to office at the start of 2025.
Kane previously said:
“We had originally constructed our venue under the assumption that the sports trading vertical would follow the trajectory of most other electronic markets, one towards efficiency and transparency powered by broker intermediation and institutional participation.”
For customers, the key dates are now fixed. New Jersey users lose withdrawal access after May 25. Users in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa and Virginia have until June 25. Sporttrade will then shut the platform fully on June 26.