Nine European gambling regulators have launched a joint crackdown on unlicensed prediction market platforms, timed to coincide with the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Regulators from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland signed the statement on Wednesday, pledging cross-border cooperation to tighten oversight of the fast-growing vertical. The nine bodies will share information and expertise to enforce compliance during and after the tournament, with coordinated monitoring of advertising and betting integrity.
In the US, prediction markets sit in a legal grey zone between gambling and financial instruments. European regulators have made no such distinction: they treat the platforms, and the operators behind them, as unlicensed gambling activity.
The timing is deliberate. The World Cup brings a seasonal spike in betting activity across Europe, and regulators want enforcement infrastructure in place before kickoff rather than reacting once volumes are already up.
The risks regulators flagged
The statement set out specific consumer protection concerns. Prediction markets operate around the clock with no mandatory betting limits or cooling-off periods, which the regulators said raises the risk of gambling harm, particularly among younger users. Weak age and identity checks on unlicensed platforms add a further safeguarding gap.
The regulators also addressed sports federations, leagues and clubs directly, telling them to verify the legality of any prediction market partner before entering a sponsorship or commercial deal.
Enforcement tools on the table
The nine bodies said they will increase social media campaigns on safer gambling during the World Cup, alongside regulatory measures ranging from formal warnings to sanctions for non-compliant operators. Other tools include service blocking, fines, advertising restrictions and account freezes, aimed in particular at operators relying on offshore or decentralised crypto licences.
Spain has already acted. The Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego ordered a temporary block on Polymarket and Kalshi last month, saying both platforms were offering services in Spain without the administrative licences required under national gambling law. France and the Netherlands have run similar geoblocking efforts against the same two platforms.
Those three cases give a preview of what the joint statement promises at scale: national regulators acting individually but now committing to compare notes and coordinate timing, so an operator blocked in one market cannot simply redirect traffic to a neighbouring one while enforcement catches up.
A market growing faster than the rules
Prediction markets have expanded quickly, driven by cryptocurrency mechanics, social sharing features and a structure that resembles financial trading more than traditional sports betting. Some platforms allow fractionalised stakes and list markets well beyond sports, and their real-time pricing blurs the line between a bet and a trade.
Europe’s regulatory map for the sector remains fragmented. Gibraltar has taken the opposite approach to the nine signatories, licensing Europe’s first prediction market operator, ADI Predictstreet, as a growth play for its gambling economy following the UK’s remote gaming duty increase. ADI Predictstreet went live at the start of the month and signed on as FIFA’s official prediction market partner for the tournament.
Malta is missing from the regulators’ statement. Economy minister Silvio Schembri said in March the country was “actively exploring the emerging field of prediction markets, an area experiencing rapid global momentum which presents significant opportunities for innovation.”
The two absences point to the same underlying split among European jurisdictions: some see prediction markets as a licensing opportunity worth competing for, others see them as gambling that needs blocking until a proper framework exists. The nine signatories sit firmly in the second camp, at least for now.
What happens next
The coordinated approach faces an immediate test: a month-long tournament that will drive prediction market volumes regardless of where operators are licensed. Whether the nine regulators’ enforcement tools, geoblocking, fines, account freezes, move fast enough to match that volume will shape how the rest of the EU treats the vertical once the World Cup ends.
Source: Joint statement of nine European gambling regulators
