Massachusetts officials are investigating Robinhood’s March prediction-markets feature for NCAA basketball outcomes. The state securities division subpoenaed the company for information on user numbers and the decision to launch, while Secretary of State Bill Galvin criticised the product as combining investing and gambling.
The probe puts Robinhood’s sports-linked event contracts under scrutiny in Massachusetts.
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The NCAA filed a lawsuit against DraftKings over its use of March Madness, Final Four, Elite Eight and Sweet Sixteen marks across sports betting products. The governing body is seeking a temporary restraining order, alleging trademark infringement.
NCAA president Charlie Baker said the association is pressing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over prediction markets and may explore other options if discussions make no progress. In a television interview, he raised concerns about sports integrity, age limits and data collection, following the NCAA's submission to the CFTC's public comment process on proposed event contract rules.
The American Gaming Association expects legal wagers on the 2026 NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in the US to total about $3.3 billion. The association said the estimate is more than 50% above the figure from three years earlier and compares with $3.1 billion last year.
The American Gaming Association (AGA) projected that Americans would wager about $3.3bn legally on the 2026 NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. It said the estimate was 54% above the amount wagered three years earlier, attributing the increase to expanded regulated markets and greater confidence in legal betting.
The NCAA introduced mandatory player availability reports for teams in its 2026 March Madness tournaments as a pilot to address sports-betting integrity concerns. Teams must submit information on athlete condition by set deadlines, with penalties for non-compliance; the NCAA will assess the programme after the championships before deciding whether to extend it to other competitions.