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Agenda

DealFlow’s program managers develop each agenda by evaluating major market trends, with an eye on the horizon of what’s to come. Below are the panel discussions which will be part of the 2026 agenda. Check this webpage often as we add speakers, announce keynotes and solo presentations, and make programming updates.

Beyond Sports Betting: How Prediction Markets Are Reshaping Gaming

Gaming represents the majority of activity in today's prediction markets, driving innovation in product design and user engagement. This panel examines how prediction markets are converging with sports betting and online gaming, and what that means for platform operators.

  • Prediction Markets vs. Sportsbooks: Where the products overlap, where they differ, and how each appeals to different types of users.
  • The Player Experience: How real-time trading, dynamic pricing, and event-based contracts are creating new forms of interactive gaming.
  • Operators & Platforms: What gaming companies can learn from prediction market mechanics—and vice versa.
  • Growth, Competition & Regulation: How gaming companies are positioning themselves as prediction markets become a larger part of the wagering ecosystem.

Midterms on the Market: How Prediction Markets Are Forecasting the 2026 Elections

As the 2026 U.S. midterm elections approach, prediction markets are emerging as a powerful real-time indicator of political expectations, offering investors, policymakers, media, and traders a market-driven perspective on electoral outcomes and their economic implications.

  • Markets vs. Polls: Why prediction markets frequently outperform traditional polling—and where each approach has limitations.
  • Trading the Political Landscape: How traders incorporate campaign developments, debates, fundraising, and breaking news into election pricing.
  • What Election Outcomes Mean for Markets: The potential impact of congressional control on taxes, regulation, fiscal policy, healthcare, energy, crypto, and capital markets.
  • Beyond Election Night: How institutions, investors, media organizations, and businesses are using prediction markets as a tool for forecasting political risk and preparing for policy changes.

Where the Smart Money Is Moving: Investing in the Prediction Markets Ecosystem

Prediction markets have evolved from a niche concept into one of the most compelling investment opportunities at the intersection of fintech, gaming, AI, crypto, and capital markets. This panel explores where cash is flowing and which business models are gaining traction.

  • Following the Capital: Where investors are placing bets across platforms, infrastructure providers, data and analytics firms, market-making businesses, and adjacent technologies.
  • What Makes a Winning Investment: The metrics, competitive advantages, regulatory considerations, and management qualities investors evaluate before writing a check.
  • The Expanding Ecosystem: Why traditional financial institutions, gaming companies, crypto firms, exchanges, and technology leaders are entering the space through investments, partnerships, and acquisitions.
  • What's Next: Which segments offer the greatest upside over the next five years, what gaps still exist in the market, and where the next wave of investment opportunities is likely to emerge.

On-Chain Forecasting: How Crypto Is Powering the Next Generation of Prediction Markets

Blockchain technology is transforming prediction markets by enabling decentralized platforms, tokenized incentives, transparent settlement, and global participation. This panel explores how crypto is reshaping market design, liquidity, and user experience while addressing the regulatory and technical challenges that come with operating on-chain.

  • Decentralized Market Infrastructure: How smart contracts, decentralized protocols, and blockchain networks automate market creation, trading, and settlement.
  • Liquidity, Incentives & Token Economics: The role of tokens, market-makers, and incentive mechanisms in attracting participants and creating efficient markets.
  • Bridging Traditional Finance & DeFi: How centralized exchanges, stablecoins, digital wallets, and financial institutions are connecting traditional capital markets with decentralized prediction markets.
  • Compliance, Security & Scalability: Navigating regulatory expectations, protecting users, preventing manipulation, and overcoming technical hurdles as crypto-powered markets move toward mainstream adoption.

Navigating the Legal Landscape: Enforcement & the Future of Prediction Markets

Prediction markets are expanding rapidly, but the legal framework governing them continues to evolve. This panel examines today's legal challenges, enforcement risks, and emerging legislation that could define the industry's future.

  • The Current Regulatory Framework: How existing federal and state laws apply to platforms, including the roles of regulators and the distinction between event contracts, gaming, and financial products.
  • Enforcement, Compliance & Legal Risk: Lessons from investigations, enforcement actions, and litigation involving platforms accused of operating outside existing legal boundaries, and strategies for managing compliance.
  • Legislative & Regulatory Developments: New bills, rulemaking efforts, and policy proposals that could reshape licensing, market access, consumer protections, and platform operations.
  • Building a Sustainable Industry: What legal clarity, regulatory modernization, and industry best practices are needed to foster innovation while protecting market integrity.

The Future of Interactive Gaming: Innovation, Technology & Scale

As prediction markets continue to gain traction, gaming operators are exploring new business models that blur the lines between investing, trading, and wagering. This discussion focuses on the infrastructure and innovation powering the next generation of gaming applications.

  • Building Markets at Scale: Technology, market-making, and liquidity solutions needed to support high-volume event trading.
  • AI, Personalization & User Engagement: How artificial intelligence and data analytics are creating smarter, more engaging gaming experiences.
  • Payments, Crypto & Global Access: The role of digital assets, wallets, and modern payment systems in expanding participation.
  • What's Next for Gaming?: Emerging opportunities in entertainment, e-sports, creator-driven markets, live events, and other high-growth categories that could define the future of prediction markets.

Why Wall Street is Paying Attention: Understanding the Massive Opportunity

Prediction markets provide a new source of real-time intelligence, offering traders and investors market-based probabilities that complement traditional research and economic indicators. This panel explores why Wall Street firms are increasingly monitoring prediction markets—and how these markets could reshape investing, risk management, and financial decision-making.

  • A New Signal for Investors: How prediction markets provide actionable insights on elections, policy, macroeconomics, corporate events, and geopolitical risk.
  • From Alternative Data to Alpha: How asset managers and quants are incorporating prediction market data into trading strategies.
  • Institutional Adoption, Hype or Long-Term Trend?: Which financial institutions stand to benefit most, and what barriers remain to broader adoption.
  • The Future of Financial Markets: Why prediction markets may become a standard tool alongside equities, options, futures, and other financial instruments for pricing uncertainty and managing risk.

Reporting the Odds: Addressing the Ethical Use of Prediction Markets in Journalism

Prediction markets are increasingly becoming a source for journalists. This panel examines how news organizations can responsibly use market-based forecasts while balancing accuracy, transparency, editorial independence, and public trust.

  • Prediction Markets as a Reporting Tool: When market prices provide meaningful insight—and when they should not replace traditional reporting or polling.
  • Transparency and Context: Best practices for explaining probabilities, uncertainty, liquidity, and market mechanics without overstating confidence.
  • Editorial Ethics and Conflicts of Interest: Addressing questions around reporters, editors, or media organizations participating in or referencing markets they cover.
  • The Future of News Coverage: How prediction markets, AI-driven analysis, and real-time forecasting may reshape election coverage, financial journalism, and breaking news reporting while preserving journalistic integrity.

Who's in Charge? States vs. the CFTC & the Battle for Regulatory Authority

As prediction markets grow in size and influence, one of the industry's biggest questions is who should regulate them. This panel explores the evolving jurisdictional debate between the federal government, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and state regulators—and what the outcome could mean for platforms, investors, and innovation.

  • Federal vs. State Authority: Where the lines are drawn between federal oversight and state regulation, and why jurisdiction remains a contested issue.
  • The CFTC's Expanding Role: How the agency approaches event contracts, market integrity, consumer protection, and innovation in prediction markets.
  • When Regulators Collide: Examining cases where federal and state authorities have taken different positions, and the compliance challenges that creates for platform operators.
  • The Road Ahead: Whether Congress, the courts, or regulators will ultimately establish a clearer framework for prediction markets—and how the industry can prepare for multiple regulatory scenarios.

Sculpting the Rules: CFTC Regulation and the Future of Markets

The future of prediction markets will be heavily influenced by how the Commodity Futures Trading Commission interprets and updates its regulatory framework. This panel examines current and proposed rulemaking, the rulemaking process itself, and how future regulatory decisions could impact innovation, competition, market structure, and investor participation.

  • Inside the Rulemaking Process: How the CFTC develops, proposes, and finalizes new rules, and where industry participants can influence the process.
  • The Issues on the Table: Key policy debates surrounding event contracts, market integrity, consumer protections, contract approvals, and the boundaries of CFTC oversight.
  • Business Impact: How pending and future rules could affect platform operators, liquidity providers, institutional participants, technology vendors, and investors.
  • Preparing for the Next Regulatory Era: What companies should be doing now to anticipate regulatory changes, strengthen compliance, and position themselves for long-term growth under an evolving framework.

The Engine Under the Hood: Building the Infrastructure That Makes Prediction Markets Work

Behind every prediction market is a sophisticated technology stack that enables secure transactions, regulatory compliance, fraud prevention, and seamless user experiences. This panel explores the critical infrastructure that powers the industry.

  • Identity, Geolocation & Compliance: How platforms verify users, enforce jurisdictional requirements, and meet KYC/AML and regulatory obligations.
  • Payments & Settlement: The evolving ecosystem of payment processors, digital wallets, stablecoins, banking partners, and settlement technologies that enable frictionless transactions.
  • Fraud Prevention & Market Integrity: Detecting suspicious activity, preventing account abuse and manipulation, and protecting both users and platform operators.
  • Certification, Security & Platform Reliability: The role of cybersecurity, game certification, auditing, and infrastructure providers in ensuring trusted and compliant platforms.

The Great Convergence: Sportsbooks, Exchanges & Prediction Markets

The lines between sportsbooks and prediction markets are disappearing. As operators adopt new wagering formats, the industry is entering a period of significant convergence. This panel explores what this evolution means for U.S. and international operators, regulators, technology providers, and consumers.

  • The Lines Are Blurring: Why sportsbooks are incorporating prediction market concepts—and how prediction market platforms are borrowing from the playbook of online gaming.
  • Business Models in Transition: Comparing sportsbook, exchange, and prediction market economics, including liquidity, pricing, customer acquisition, and market-making strategies.
  • The Global Competitive Landscape: How U.S. operators compare with international gaming companies, and which regulatory models are accelerating innovation abroad.
  • The Next Generation of Interactive Wagering: Where convergence leads next—from broader event contracts and financial-style trading to AI-powered personalization, new product categories, and the emergence of hybrid platforms that combine investing, trading, and gaming.

Protecting the Market: Integrity, Surveillance & Trust in Prediction Markets

Prediction markets depend on confidence in fair, transparent, and orderly trading. As the industry grows, platforms must be prepared to detect manipulation, prevent fraud, respond to controversies, and maintain user trust. This panel examines the policies and governance practices that help ensure market integrity while preserving open and efficient markets.

  • Detecting Manipulation & Abuse: How platforms identify wash trading, coordinated manipulation, insider activity, bots, and other threats to market fairness.
  • Technology for Market Surveillance: The role of AI, blockchain analytics, behavioral monitoring, real-time surveillance, and automated compliance tools in protecting market integrity.
  • Responding to Market Controversies: Best practices for handling disputed outcomes, suspicious trading activity, reputational crises, and high-profile incidents while maintaining transparency with users.
  • Building Trust at Scale: The importance of governance, independent audits, dispute resolution, certification, and collaboration among platforms, regulators, infrastructure providers, and market participants.

Inside the Investment Thesis: What Investors Look for in Platforms

As the sector attracts growing interest from venture capital, strategic investors, and institutional capital, the standards for evaluating platforms are becoming more sophisticated. This panel examines the key metrics, business models, and competitive advantages that determine which companies are positioned to scale and deliver long-term value.

  • Business Model & Revenue Potential: How investors assess transaction volume, monetization strategies, customer acquisition, and long-term profitability.
  • Liquidity, Network Effects & Market Growth: Why liquidity, active users, market depth, and ecosystem expansion are critical indicators of a platform's success.
  • Technology, Compliance & Competitive Moats: Evaluating infrastructure, regulatory strategy, security, and the sustainable advantages that differentiate leading platforms.
  • Capital Formation & Exit Opportunities: What investors expect before deploying capital, and how they view future funding rounds, strategic partnerships, acquisitions, and public market potential.

Wall Street Meets Prediction Markets: The Next Frontier for Risk Management

Prediction markets are attracting growing interest from investment banks, market-makers, and institutional investors as a new asset class and source of market intelligence. This panel explores how event-based markets could evolve into sophisticated financial instruments, creating new opportunities for hedging, liquidity, risk transfer, and institutional participation.

  • Why Wall Street Is Paying Attention: What makes prediction markets compelling to banks, proprietary trading firms, market-makers, and asset managers.
  • From Event Contracts to Financial Products: The potential for prediction markets to support new derivatives, structured products, and hedging strategies tied to political, economic, and corporate events.
  • Market Making, Liquidity & Price Discovery: How professional trading firms can improve market efficiency, tighten spreads, deepen liquidity, and enhance the informational value of prediction markets.
  • The Institutional Opportunity: What needs to happen—from regulation and clearing infrastructure to custody and compliance—for prediction markets to become a mainstream component of global capital markets.

Beyond the Bet: Building the Next Generation of Derivatives

As prediction markets mature, the next wave of innovation will come from sophisticated financial instruments that enable participants to hedge risk, enhance liquidity, and create entirely new trading strategies. This panel explores how structured products could transform prediction markets from standalone contracts into a fully developed financial ecosystem.

  • Designing New Risk Management Tools: What types of options, futures, swaps, and structured products could emerge around prediction market contracts?
  • Unlocking Institutional Participation: How can derivatives make prediction markets more attractive to market-makers, asset managers, and corporate risk managers?
  • Liquidity, Pricing & Market Efficiency: Will derivative products deepen liquidity, improve price discovery, or introduce new forms of volatility and complexity?
  • Regulatory & Infrastructure Challenges: What legal, clearing, custody, and exchange frameworks must evolve to support a robust derivatives market built on prediction events?

A Global Race: How U.S. Platforms Compare to International Models

Prediction markets are developing at different speeds around the world, with varying approaches to regulation, technology, and user participation. This panel examines the opportunities and challenges facing U.S. platforms compared with overseas markets, exploring what global experiences can teach the next generation of market operators.

  • Different Regulatory Paths: How the U.S. approach compares with international frameworks, and what global regulatory models reveal about market innovation and oversight.
  • Lessons From Abroad: What overseas markets have learned about liquidity, user adoption, market design, and sustainable growth.
  • Competing in a Global Marketplace: How U.S. platforms can attract users, capital, and institutional participation while navigating a complex domestic regulatory environment.
  • The Future of Cross-Border Markets: Opportunities and challenges around international expansion, technology infrastructure, payments, compliance, and the potential for a truly global prediction markets ecosystem.

Data Analysis: Understanding Trading Volume, Activity & Market Trends

As prediction markets mature, trading volume, liquidity, and participant behavior are becoming critical measures of market health and opportunity. This panel analyzes the data behind the industry's growth, examining overall activity and engagement, to understand what trading patterns reveal about the future of prediction markets.

  • The Volume Story: Breaking down growth trends across platforms, contract types, event categories, and the factors driving increased participation.
  • Who Is Trading and Why: Understanding the participant base—from retail users and traders to institutions and market-makers.
  • Liquidity, Pricing & Market Efficiency: Analyzing spreads, depth, price discovery, and the role of liquidity providers in creating accurate and reliable markets.
  • What the Data Tells Us: Using trading activity and market behavior to identify emerging opportunities, changing user preferences, and the next phase of market growth.

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