DraftKings could generate up to $57 million in exchange fee revenue from its proprietary prediction market platform, DKeX, during the 2026 NFL season, according to an equity research note published by Jefferies analyst David Katz.

The financial projection follows a two-game analytical benchmark comprising the NFL season opener between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, and a Thursday Night Football matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers. Across those two initial slates, Jefferies tracked approximately $42 million in contract volume on DKeX, yielding roughly $106,000 in exchange fees. Stretch that across a full season and you reach the $57 million ceiling, a big number for a product most bettors know as a tab inside the DraftKings app.

The Exchange DraftKings Had to Buy

DKeX is not a startup. It’s built on the technology and CFTC license DraftKings picked up when it bought Railbird Technologies in October 2025, and it launched on June 26 inside the same app as the company’s sportsbook and casino.

Before that, DraftKings Predictions, which went live last December, routed contracts through CME Group and later Crypto.com. Customers paid an exchange fee as well as a DraftKings fee, and a third party kept its cut. Chief executive Jason Robins said owning the exchange gives DraftKings “greater control over the technology that powers those offerings, and enabling us to move faster.”

Fees Versus Market Making

Katz drew a clear line between the two ways DraftKings can make money here. “Overall, we believe the analysis reinforces that exchange fees represent the more recurring and predictable revenue opportunity, while market-making economics are inherently more variable and dependent on spreads, inventory management, hedging, and event outcomes,” he wrote.

The $57 million covers fees only. Jefferies left out any trading profits or losses from DraftKings taking the other side of contracts itself. Per contract the charges are small: takers pay $0.01 or $0.02 depending on the contract’s price, and market makers pay $0.0025. Volume is what turns that into real money.

Football Changed the Routing

For most of the summer DraftKings kept sending the bulk of its sports trades to Crypto.com. A late-August test run showed what was at stake, with DKeX doing $13.4 million in volume and $130,000 in fees on a single Friday after never having handled more than $1.5 million in a day. The real switch came with the first weekend of college football. Contract volume on DKeX rose 609% week on week, according to Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, whose analyst Brad Allen wrote that “DraftKings looks to be putting its football CV through DKeX rather than Nadex,” Crypto.com’s exchange.

Parlays did a lot of the work. Combos, the prediction market version of a parlay, only arrived on DKeX toward the end of August, yet they made up around 46% of its volume in the first week of September. That’s the same bundled bet sportsbook customers already love, just wrapped in a federal contract.

The Opener Showed the Gap

The Wednesday opener gives a sense of scale. Research firm Aldrin tracked more than $140 million in trading across nine exchanges on that one game. Kalshi took $105.5 million of it, about 79%. DKeX came next with $11 million.

Katz also expected the first full NFL Sunday to be “one of the largest trading days in prediction market history.” For an exchange charging a cent or two a contract, that’s exactly the kind of weekend that makes a season estimate plausible.

Still a Small Fish Next to Kalshi

None of this makes DraftKings the leader. Eilers & Krejcik puts DKeX, Novig and Nadex at roughly 1.6% market share each, against 85% for Kalshi and 7.5% for Polymarket.

The reach is the attraction. DKeX offers sports event contracts in 18 states, generally ones where a licensed sportsbook can’t legally operate, and that federal-versus-state question is being fought across the country. DraftKings isn’t the only sportsbook brand chasing it either, with FanDuel making its own prediction markets push.

Two games produced about $106,000 in fees. A full season of Sundays is what Jefferies priced at $57 million.