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IG Group said on 22 October 2026 that it had applied to the UK Gambling Commission for a licence to run markets on politics, entertainment and sport. The application is from IG View Limited, its London subsidiary, which is listed on the regulator's register as "ig prediction markets".
Its entry shows a pending remote licence for general betting on real events. No licence has been issued.
The company plans to begin with financial-event contracts for UK professional clients in the fourth quarter, followed by the other markets in early 2027. The FCA classifies contracts tied to financial outcomes as binary options and has prohibited them for retail investors since 2019. Sports and political betting falls under the Gambling Commission.
In the US, taker volume across Kalshi and Polymarket reached $172.4 billion in the third quarter, up from $98.5 billion in the second, based on FM Intelligence calculations. IG also agreed in July to acquire US fantasy sports and prediction markets operator Underdog for up to about $1.3 billion. Completion is expected in late 2026 or early 2027.
Trading and customer figures
| Measure | Reported figure |
|---|---|
| Kalshi and Polymarket taker volume | $172.4 billion in the third quarter; $98.5 billion in the second |
| Underdog purchase | Up to about $1.3 billion; expected to close in late 2026 or early 2027 |
| Freetrade acquisition price | £160 million |
| Freetrade net trading revenue | £2.2 million in the third quarter, down 67% year-on-year from £6.7 million |
| Freetrade monthly active customers | 454,700, down 1%; about £4.84 revenue per active customer for the quarter, compared with £14.57 a year earlier |
| Freetrade 2025 pre-tax result | Loss of £24.4 million, its first year under IG |
| IG investing customers in the UK and Ireland | 78,100, up 30% year-on-year |
| IG third-quarter revenue | £240.5 million, down 14% year-on-year |
| OTC derivatives fees and net revenue | Fees and commissions rose about 8%; net revenue fell 18% to £156.1 million |
| Return to volume | 70%, compared with an average of about 80% since the second half of 2025 |
| IG outlook | Mid-single-digit revenue growth forecast for 2026; buybacks expected to resume in 2027 |
| Holding company move | Jersey move due to take effect in late 2026 or early 2027 |
How IG frames expansion
Chief Executive Breon Corcoran said, "Trading, investing and entertainment are converging." He previously led Betfair and Paddy Power Betfair, leaving the latter in January 2018. IG exited gambling in 2011, selling the Extrabet betting arm's customer base to Spreadex.
Spreadex and Sporting Index have general betting licences. Betfair, Smarkets and Matchbook hold betting intermediary licences, a category the Gambling Commission said in February could cover prediction markets.
As Finance Magnates reported, Kalshi, Polymarket, CMC Markets and Plus500 are absent from the UK register. No prediction market holds a licence across the European Union; Gibraltar issued its first in April.
IG attributed Freetrade's stock-trading revenue decline to weak markets and customer concern about the valuations attached to technology and AI. It also cited restraint ahead of the UK Budget, where capital gains tax changes may be announced. The company said its combined trading, investing and crypto app is live in the UK, with rollout to its other markets to follow.
What to watch next
For platform, risk and operations teams, the application creates two distinct regulatory tracks: financial-event contracts for professional clients and general betting on real events. With the gambling licence still pending, operators should establish which eligibility checks, permissions, limits and reporting controls would apply to each product before the planned rollout.
IG has not said whether the new markets will use the same account, funding and reporting flows as its trading and investing services. Those are questions to resolve alongside reconciliation between product activity and customer records. The UK app consolidation adds another point to check: how prediction-market access will fit into the app already used for trading, investing and crypto, and how that setup will be adapted in other markets.
The return-to-volume figure is another operational metric to track. IG said it expects the proportion to be structurally higher over time, while reporting that OTC derivatives fees and commissions rose about 8% as net revenue fell 18% to £156.1 million. Finance and reporting teams will need to follow how those two measures move against each other in subsequent results.
