IG Group will launch financial prediction markets for UK professional clients in Q4 2026, the FTSE 100 trading company said at its Capital Markets Event in London on 22 October. The IG Group prediction markets offer will add politics, entertainment and sports contracts in early 2027, while a UK betting licence application remains pending.
The timetable is set out in IG’s Capital Markets Event announcement, which states that IG Consumer, the group’s retail trading and investing division, has applied for a UK gambling licence.
The licence application
The Gambling Commission’s public register lists IG View Limited, account 102436, with a General Betting Standard – Real Event (Remote) licence marked as pending. The register records no regulatory actions against the entity.
The route places IG’s event contracts under UK gambling law. IG’s UK trading business is already authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), so a granted licence would put its prediction markets offer under a second regulator.
The approach differs from the US, where prediction markets are regulated federally by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as event contracts. European regulators have taken their own lines: Spain blocked Kalshi and Polymarket in May, while Gibraltar is pushing prediction markets as a licensed product.
IG Group prediction markets timeline
The first product covers financial events and is restricted to professional clients. Contracts on politics, entertainment and sports are scheduled for early 2027, according to the announcement.
Michael Healy, Chief Executive Officer of IG Consumer, is rolling the UK growth strategy out across IG Consumer’s other markets. IG said its single account for trading, investing and crypto is live in the UK and will be extended to the rest of the division.
Trading, investing and entertainment are converging, and IG is well placed to capitalise on the opportunity.
Breon Corcoran, Chief Executive Officer, IG Group, in the Capital Markets Event announcement
Corcoran added that the priorities “underpin my confidence that we will create significant shareholder value in the coming years.”
Group finances
The UK move follows IG’s agreed takeover of Underdog, the US daily fantasy sports and prediction markets operator led by co-founder and CEO Jeremy Levine. IG put the enterprise value at about $1.1bn, with an earn-out of up to about $200m tied to 2026 targets, taking the total to about $1.3bn, according to its 30 July acquisition announcement. That filing described Underdog as the third-largest US prediction markets venue by notional volume, behind Kalshi and Robinhood.
IG kept its 2026 guidance of mid-single-digit revenue growth and a group EBITDA margin in the low 40s, excluding about £30m of redomicile, restructuring and Underdog deal costs. Medium-term guidance, excluding Underdog, remains organic revenue growth of 10% or more a year from a 2025 base of about £1.1bn.
Monthly active customers rose 17% year on year to 864,700 in Q3 2026, while total revenue fell 14% to £240.5m, the company reported.
Next steps
The financial prediction markets product for professional clients is due in Q4 2026, and the Gambling Commission has yet to decide on the IG View Limited application. The Underdog deal is expected to complete in late 2026 or early 2027, pending US regulatory approvals, and IG’s move of its legal home to Jersey is due on the same timetable, subject to court approval. Share buybacks are expected to resume in 2027. More on the sector is in TGE’s prediction markets coverage.
Source: IG Group
