Online Casino Operator's Stock Surges on Crypto.com Prediction Market Deal

In brief: * Shares in High Roller Technologies (ROLR) have surged since the firm announced it will launch a prediction market product. * The firm entered an agreement with a Crypto.com affiliate to offer a CFTC-regulated prediction market. * Shares are down 7% on Wednesday, but have jumped more than 87% in the last 5 trading days.

Shares in publicly traded casino brand operator High Roller Technologies (ROLR) jumped more than 80% on Tuesday after the firm announced an agreement with Crypto.com Derivatives North America (CDNA) to create a prediction markets offering.

The firm considers the move a “strategic growth opportunity,” in a sector that Bernstein analysts said this week could grow to generate $1 trillion in annual trading volumes by 2030.

“This is our primary focus, not an amenity as part of a larger product,” High Roller Technologies CEO Ben Young told Decrypt. “We are effectively the only pure-play prediction market operator in the public markets.”

The firm’s agreement with CDNA will allow it to offer event contracts across sports, finance, and e-commerce through the Crypto.com affiliates’ CFTC-registered exchange and clearinghouse.

“Our go-to-market is built on the federal regulatory framework,” said Young. “We will be operating within a regime that provides clear rules of the road.”

While the foundation of the firm’s offering will allow it to offer markets across the United States, Young noted that some jurisdictions remain more challenging than others.

“Everyone in this space is watching how the regulatory landscape develops,” he said. “We are paying close attention to state-level developments.”

The Nevada-based firm’s home state is putting up one of the toughest fights, having recently instituted a temporary restraining order against prediction market platform Kalshi, banning the firm from offering markets in the state for a time. That ban was recently extended as part of an ongoing legal battle, according to a report from The Nevada Independent.

Regardless of what happens, Young said his firm’s “architecture does not depend on any single state,” and that the company is focused on “proving that a regulated, publicly accountable prediction markets platform can compete on user experience and transparency.”

“We are consumer-focused,” he said.

Shares in the firm are down more than 10% on Wednesday, but have jumped 80% in the last five trading days.