Robinhood launches betting market for US presidential election
The cryptocurrency and stock trading platform Robinhood announced that it has introduced contracts for specific users to wager on the outcome of the presidential election between former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, with eight days until the general election in the United States on November 5.
Robinhood launches contracts for customers to wage on Harris and Trump
In a growing market that strongly favors former President Donald Trump next month, retail investing platform Robinhood launched a program Monday that allows users to wager on the outcome of the presidential election.
Forbes reported that users can buy up to 5,000 election contracts. This means Robinhood users can get up to $5,000 in payouts if they pick the winning side. Robinhood's presidential election betting market will gradually extend its hours of operation before the election on Tuesday.
Trading will be open from 8 a.m. EDT to 8 p.m. EDT for the next two days, and then it will run nearly nonstop from Sunday through Friday, November 8. Contract payments are scheduled for January 7 to 8, 2025.
The upcoming United States election will determine which political party will govern and shape the future of policy in the country starting next year.
Contracts available to a limited number of U.S. citizens
The US presidential election contracts were launched by Robinhood's derivatives arm on October 28. According to the notice, only US citizens are now able to trade based on their predictions of whether Trump or Vice President Harris will win in 2024. The platform states that the contract's payment will be made on January 6, 2025, following Congress's certification of the election results.
The platform said the company is dedicated to democratizing finance for everyone, regardless of who is in office. The derivatives platform added that each election contract's value "may equal up to $1.00, but may have a notional value less than $1.00." According to Robinhood's terms and conditions, certain US citizens, such as those working for each candidate's campaign, employees of political action committees receiving salary, or staff of the White House, would not be permitted to submit bids for Harris or Trump.
Users of Robinhood will be able to trade on presidential election contracts until next year, on January 5, 2025. Many analysts predict that the 2024 election will be extremely close, with some states taking days to count the votes and confirm the results. Media outlets announced the 2020 results will be on November 7, four days after election day.
In the meantime, Trump is predicted to win the election on November 5 by other betting markets like Polymarket. Last week, Polymarket disclosed that four accounts that spent millions to acquire the Trump contract were controlled by a single French trader. The global platform concluded that there was no evidence of market manipulation.
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