Robinhood’s Rothera Launch Reshapes Its Role in the Event Contract Market
Robinhood has begun routing customer prediction-market trades through Rothera, its new exchange with Susquehanna. Early volumes remain modest, but the launch signals a broader shift in strategy.
When Robinhood Markets traders bought contracts on the Chicago White Sox-Detroit Tigers game on May 30, many were trading through Rothera, the company’s jointly owned CFTC-regulated exchange with Susquehanna, without realizing it.
Rothera processed about $2.1 million between Friday and Sunday. About 85% of that total came from the White Sox-Tigers contract alone, according to InGame.
The trading volume remains modest. Still, the weekend provided an early look at how Robinhood plans to build out infrastructure for its event-contract business, which has historically relied on Kalshi’s exchange infrastructure.
What Rothera Actually Is
Robinhood and Susquehanna International Group (SIG) jointly operate Rothera. SIG, a Pennsylvania-headquartered proprietary trading firm, already runs market-making operations that play a key role across various prediction venues.
The exchange is registered with the CFTC as a Designated Contract Market and a Derivatives Clearing Organization.
This double designation allows Rothera to list and clear its own contracts without relying on a third party. It won’t have to hand over the fees associated with each layer. By contrast, the majority of retail-facing event contracts in the U.S. pass through a small number of CFTC-registered exchanges, with separate clearing arrangements added on top.
Rothera started limited 24/7 trading on May 21 after self-certifying its first sports contract with the CFTC for the outcome of baseball games.
It received additional certifications over the following 10 days. Those include a Baseball Outcome Event Contract and four soccer contracts covering match results, point spreads, and total goals, ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which begins on June 11.
Rothera only became a real market for the first time when Robinhood began directing live customer traffic to the venue within its consumer app.
The launch gives Robinhood ownership of both exchange and clearing infrastructure. That allows the company to capture a larger share of trade economics while maintaining greater control over product development, listings, and customer experience.
A Gradual Rollout
The volume distribution during Rothera’s first few days of trading shows that Robinhood is routing orders selectively. In addition to baseball games, the exchange lists contracts for Core PCE inflation and weekly initial jobless claims.
The $2.1 million processed by Rothera over the weekend represents only a small fraction of Robinhood’s broader event-contract activity. The company reported 8.8 billion event contracts traded during Q1 2026.
The small portion of Robinhood’s event-contract activity flowing through Rothera aligns with how Robinhood has launched other new infrastructure in the past.
A Strategic Decision
Robinhood Chief Financial Officer Shiv Verma explained the rationale behind Rothera last week while speaking at the Bernstein 42nd Annual Strategic Decisions Conference. He discussed how partnering with a well-established firm such as Susquehanna accelerates speed to market.
He then explained why the company likes to “vertically integrate because you control the whole product engineering, you also control the better economics.”
Responding to a question about the company’s relationships with existing exchange partners, Verma said investors should expect Robinhood to direct a greater volume to Rothera going forward. He also left open the possibility of maintaining a fallback venue.
Verma also said Robinhood’s event contract product serves about 1.5 million customers, up from about 500,000 since a disclosure in late November 2025.
He added that futures commission merchants are now expressing interest in clearing through Rothera. Verma said Rothera will stay away from listing “death contracts,” whereby markets effectively try to predict a person’s death. Those markets can create significant reputational issues for competing exchanges.
Implications for the Event Contract Market
Rothera’s launch adds a new dynamic to the rapidly growing U.S. event-contract market.
Robinhood has represented a substantial share of Kalshi’s volume over the past year, reaching nearly 60% in September 2025. That share has slid to about 20% in April 2026.
That relationship makes Rothera’s development particularly noteworthy, as Robinhood now can route customer activity through the infrastructure it jointly operates.
Robinhood will continue to offer Kalshi and ForecastEx contracts alongside its own for now, especially in markets that Rothera does not yet list.
At the same time, comments from company leadership indicate Robinhood expects a growing share of activity to move through Rothera over time.
Rothera is also expected to expand its offerings during June. According to the exchange’s published roadmap, additional contracts are scheduled to launch this month. Verma also discussed expanding beyond sports, highlighting opportunities in financial-event contracts, institutional participation, and international markets.
The industry will watch closely to see how quickly Robinhood expands Rothera’s product offerings and routes additional customer activity through the platform in the months ahead.
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