Trading platform IG Group has made a bid to acquire daily fantasy sports (DFS) and predictions operator Underdog in a deal that could be worth up to $1.3 billion.
Led by former Paddy Power/Flutter CEO Breon Corcoran, IG Group is a FTSE 100-listed retail stock and crypto trading platform, operating across various brands. Corcoran joined the company as CEO in December 2023, but in the industry he is best known for his two-year stint as CEO for Paddy Power Betfair (PPB).
He joined the combined group from Betfair, where he spent over three years between 2012 and 2016.
Corcoran left the sector when Peter Jackson took over at PPB in 2018 and has spent a number of years working in finance and investments.
Corcoran said in a statement on Thursday night that the Underdog deal would establish it as “a leader in US prediction markets” as well as accelerating its growth “in the world’s largest and fastest-growing retail trading market”.
The deal valued Underdog at $1.1 billion, equivalent to 2.4x Underdog’s 12-month revenue to June 2026 ($466 million).This marked an increase of 21% year-over-year. An earnout of up to approximately $200 million will be payable to Underdog’s shareholders, subject to 2026 net gaming revenue targets and conditional on its achievement of a positive 2026 EBITDA.
To support the acquisition, IG Group has entered into a bridge facility of up to $950 million with Barclays Bank PLC and Goldman Sachs.
The deal is expected to complete in late 2026 or early 2027.
Underdog’s background
Underdog entered the prediction markets fray in September 2025 via a partnership with Crypto.com Derivatives. At the time CEO Jeremy Levine told CNBC the DFS operator would roll out sports prediction markets in 16 states.
In a release Levine said: “While still new and evolving, one thing is clear – the future of prediction markets is going to be about sports – and no one does sports better than Underdog.”
Levine has previous links to Corcoran, having founded DFS app DRAFT which was sold to PPB under Corcoran in 2017 for $19 million, with further cash considerations of up to $29 million. Corcoran was also an early-stage investor in Underdog, IG said in its release yesterday.
“The acquisition materially increases IG’s US presence,” the acquisition statement said. “On completion it is expected to more than double the group’s US revenues and to increase US monthly active customers more than tenfold, bringing a large, engaged customer base together with an efficient, low-cost acquisition channel.”
On its performance since launching its predictions arm, Underdog has expanded across 30 states with parlays. It has also migrated to Kalshi, making it the third-largest US prediction-markets venue by US-regulated notional volume flow, across both prediction markets and DFS combination trades.
IG Group reported that the product had reached 54% of handle in the first half of 2026, with a quarterly group EBITDA rising to $46 million in Q2. It described Underdog as the second-largest DFS operator by revenue, behind PrizePicks.
It said the platform had accrued five million depositing customers and over 11 million registered accounts. Its next phase of growth is expected to come from its recently launched proprietary exchange, enabling it to internalise the economics across the value chain.
Future plans
Despite initial plans to focus on sports betting contracts, IG hinted at possible plans to move into contracts referencing crypto, financial and macroeconomic and cultural and political outcomes. It said this would open a materially larger addressable market.
“That same exchange and clearing infrastructure also positions Underdog for the emerging onshore market in perpetual futures, and to share infrastructure with Tastytrade, giving the enlarged group a further long-term avenue for growth,” IG Group added.
The deal is expected to more than double IG’s US revenues and increase its US monthly active customers more than tenfold.
“On a pro forma basis – combining Underdog’s audited 2025 results with IG’s audited 2025 results – the US would have represented approximately 40% of group revenue,” it added. “With prediction markets and DFS accounting for approximately 25% of combined total net trading revenue.”
For IG Group the deal represents an opportunity to diversify and enter the rapidly growing predictions vertical. It said the move would help “reduce the group’s reliance on any single product line”.
Underdog will continue to operate a standalone brand, post closing. Levine will report directly into Corcoran and various synergies are expected upon closure, including capital efficiency from a shared balance sheet, complemented by revenue synergies from multi-product relationships across customer bases and from shared product engineering, marketing capabilities and regulatory licences.
Nicole Macedo
Nicole cut her teeth in local news rooms at home in Gibraltar, and helped to establish the peninsula’s first online-only broadcaster.
