IG Group, the retail trading giant that has acquired US prediction market and DFS firm Underdog, has applied for a licence from the Gambling Commission (GC).
IG Group snapped up Underdog in a deal worth up to $1.3bn earlier this year, including an initial payment of $1.1bn.
The application has been submitted by IG View Limited, which shares the same 88 Wood Street, London address as IG Group.
The firm has requested a ‘general betting standard – real event licence’, which is currently marked as pending on the GC’s database.
The application lists “ig prediction markets” as its chosen trading name. The domain name is ig.com.
IG Group holds licences from the Financial Conduct Authority which allows the London-listed group to offer multiple services, including spread betting and crypto trading.
IG Group is headed up by CEO Breon Corcoran, who was formerly the boss of Paddy Power Betfair.
Prediction markets have taken the US by storm since the US presidential election in 2024, with sports contracts picking up traction in early 2025.
Underdog, which started life as a DFS firm, acquired Aristotle Exchange earlier this year, effectively bringing the entire exchange tech stack in-house.
In an investor seminar earlier this month, IG Group disclosed Underdog 2025 revenue had hit $441m, up from $271m in 2024.
In Q3 2026, IG Group noted Underdog revenue had increased more than 100% year on year to around $105m.
Stakes per customer also jumped 165%, average deposits per customer rose 109% and monthly actives were up 13%.
While prediction markets have garnered huge amounts of consumer interest, the UK market, as well as much of Europe, has not been caught up in the hype.
Prediction markets’ effective mirroring of betting exchanges, as well as the liberalisation of online sports betting and casino across much of Europe, has given little oxygen to the need for the product.
Indeed, the GC director of strategy Brad Enright said in a blog post in February that the existing betting intermediary licence would cover prediction markets.
He wrote: “While the presentation of prediction markets may differ, their core aspects are akin to what in the UK would be described as a ‘betting exchange’. The betting intermediary gambling licence exists to cover such business models.
“While prediction markets are a relatively new development in the US, betting exchanges have existed in the UK since 2000.
“It is unlikely the commercial drivers for prediction markets are the same here as in the US. There are notable differences between the gambling market in Great Britain and the US.
“Sports betting is established and available across the whole of Great Britain under a single overarching regulatory framework. Legal sports betting in the US is a more recent development and to date has been subject to state-by-state approaches.”
The GB betting exchange market is dominated by Betfair. Matchbook has today acquired Betdaq, leaving Smarkets as the only other established challenger brand in the space.
EGR has contacted IG Group for comment.
The post IG Group applies for Gambling Commission licence first appeared on EGR Intel.
Trading giant, which snapped up US prediction market Underdog earlier this year, submits request for a sports betting permit with the British regulator
The post IG Group applies for Gambling Commission licence first appeared on EGR Intel.