FIFA Names PredictStreet Official Prediction Market Partner for 2026 World Cup

Join 5750+ Leaders in Blockchain & Sports from brands like FIFA, NBA, Premier League, NHL, reading Sporting Crypto every week 👇️ 

Prediction markets have become something that Sporting Crypto would analyse every couple of months 2 years ago, to something that is cropping up every week.

That’s why we’re launching Predicted, a place for me to write about the business of prediction markets every week.

You can support and subscribe below 👇️

The Deal 🤝

FIFA announced ADI Predictstreet as the official Prediction Market Partner for the 2026 World Cup, the football federation’s first-ever global partner in the prediction market category.

PredictStreet is powered by ADI Chain's blockchain infrastructure and will offer World Cup-specific markets throughout the tournament. ADI chain are a UAE institutionally specific blockchain launched with the Zkysync stack, and runs as an Ethereum Layer 2.

The deal gives PredictStreet official partner status, meaning FIFA branding rights and integration across tournament marketing channels.

It’s the first global sports federation to establish a prediction markets deal, and it follows U.S based leagues like MLB, MLS as well as Spain’s La Liga signing prediction market deals in the last 3 months.

The platform will leverage FIFA's official historical data. Fans will forecast match outcomes, tournament statistics, standout players, and key moments.

There is no insight into financial terms, and it’s unknown if PredictStreet paid a rights fee or operates under a revenue-share model tied to trading volume. No data-sharing agreement with regulators have been announced.

FIFA is doing this now because it's commercially beneficial. Prediction market volumes exploded in 2025. Every major league watched weekly trading hit billions.

FIFA saw the category mature and decided the risk of sitting out was worse than the risk of getting in.

What PredictStreet Is 📊

ADI Predictstreet is a subsidiary of Finstreet Limited, which is itself an International Holding Company (IHC) subsidiary. IHC is a major UAE conglomerate, and one of the largest investment firms on the planet, and the second most valuable company in the gulf region.

This is most certainly serious money.

Interestingly, the platform is licensed and operating in Gibraltar.

Gibraltar's gambling license register began showing Predict Street Ltd as a licensed betting intermediary on March 26, 2026, which was the first-ever prediction market operator license issued by Gibraltar.

Gibraltar's Justice Minister Nigel Feetham said:

"We expect this to be a substantial area of growth for Gibraltar. A new license has been issued, notwithstanding that the new Gambling Act had not yet been brought into force, and the new license had to be issued under the previous legislation. This represents record timing for the issuing of a regulatory license in Gibraltar."

Gibraltar pushed this license under the old 2005 Gambling Act before the 2025 Act came into force.

ADI Predictstreet is the first consumer-facing application deployed on ADI Chain's blockchain infrastructure, and globally speaking, is one of the first new-gen crypto prediction market businesses to be regulated by a gambling regulator, rather than operating offshore or attempting to get a CFTC license.

A press release said:

"ADI Predictstreet is rolled out globally through a phased approach, with expansion guided by market readiness and regulatory alignment."

Who Are ADI Chain? 🔗

ADI Chain is the first institutional Layer 2 blockchain for stablecoins and real-world assets in the MENA region.

The network provides settlement infrastructure for a dirham-backed stablecoin initiated by IHC and First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), licensed by the UAE Central Bank.

Although it seems like ADI and PredictStreet have come from nowhere, again to emphasise, these are as serious players as can be in the Gulf region across investment, finance and central banks.

ADI Foundation, which oversees ADI Chain, is an Abu Dhabi-based non-profit founded by Sirius International Holding, a subsidiary of IHC. The foundation's mission: bring one billion people into the digital economy by 2030.

ADI Chain operates on three pillars: Compliance, Efficiency, Security. The network serves governments implementing blockchain infrastructure across the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

The token $ADI functions as the gas token powering on-chain transactions across the ADI Chain ecosystem, including ADI Predictstreet activity. All predictions settle on-chain through ADI Chain.

Andrey Lazorenko, CEO of ADI Foundation, said:

"The FIFA World Cup is where billions of people share one moment at the same time. With this historic announcement of the first consumer-facing ecosystem project on ADI Chain, ADI Predictstreet gives fans a way to partake in the history of football at a scale nobody has done before – all powered by ADI Chain's infrastructure."

The FIFA deal is a marketing vehicle for ADI Chain's institutional positioning, but also allows them to test a consumer use case at scale, and add transactions to the network.

Concluding Thoughts 💭

(1) The Regulator setup here is interesting

While most have rushed to buy or apply for a CFTC license to operate within the U.S, PredictStreet have the underlying institutional licenses that ADI Chain operates within — but also a gambling license from Gibraltar.

That mix is pretty unique right now across the prediction market landscape.

(2) The volumes here will be interesting to watch

The World Cup is a massive event. And it will be interesting to see how hard PredictStreet push to incentivise retail, traders, market makers and liquidity providers to use PredictStreet and where those people will be based.

(3) PredictStreet feels unserious, but is the opposite

Usually, there is a temptation to write off any product, especially one in a roaring bubble like Prediction Markets, that has come out of nowhere.

But:

- Zkysync
- ADI Chain
- Their backers and investors
- The regulatory set up
- Speed of operations

Means this is something we shouldn’t handwave.

(4) How will liquidity be aggregated?

Considering the regulatory set-up here, it will be interesting to see how aggregated the liquidity is. If we presume that this won’t be able to operate in the U.S, how much of the rest of the world’s liquidity can be compliantly aggregated is something to follow.

More Sports & Web3 Stories

• LALIGA Becomes First European Soccer League to Partner with Polymarket in the United States and Canada (Read more here)

• Prospect Markets Joins Google for Startups Cloud Program to Support Development of Its Sports Prediction Market Platform (Read more here)

General ‘Stuff’ that Could Impact You

• Jamie Dimon signals JPMorgan entry into prediction markets as competition surges (Read more here)

• Latin America’s Mercado Libre Pulls the Plug on Its Crypto Coin (Read more here)

Thanks for reading the latest edition of the Sporting Crypto newsletter!

If you enjoyed this, please tell your friends who might be interested and share it on socials.

Disclaimers

This newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not financial, business or legal advice. These are the author’s thoughts & opinions and do not represent the opinions of any other person, business, entity or sponsor. Any companies or projects mentioned are for illustrative purposes unless specified.

The contents of this newsletter should not be used in any public or private domain without the express permission of the author.

The contents of this newsletter should not be used for any commercial activity, for example - research report, consultancy activity, or paywalled article without the express permission of the author.

Please note, the services and products advertised by our sponsors (by use of terminology such as but not limited to; supported by, sponsored by or brought to you by) in this newsletter carry inherent risks and should not be regarded as completely safe or risk-free. Third-party entities provide these services and products, and we do not control, endorse, or guarantee the accuracy, efficacy, or safety of their offerings.

It's crucial to provide our readers with clear information regarding the inherent nature of services and products that might be covered in this newsletter, including those advertised by our sponsors from time to time. When you buy cryptoassets (including NFTs) your capital is at risk. Risks associated with cryptoassets include price volatility, loss of capital (the value of your cryptoassets could drop to zero), complexity, lack of regulation and lack of protection. Most service providers operating in the cryptoasset industry do not currently operate in a regulated industry. Therefore, please be aware that when you buy cryptoassets, you are not protected under financial compensation schemes and protections typically afforded to investors when dealing with regulated and authorised entities to operate as financial services firm.