Gaming: Prepping for perps: perpetual futures and more “gamification”

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Gaming: Prepping for perps: perpetual futures and more “gamification”

Accessible version

Gaming

Prepping for perps: perpetual futures and

more “gamification”

Industry Overview

Sports event contracts are here, what’s next? 08 June 2026

We have written extensively on prediction markets, and we think there is still lots of Equity

competition and innovation coming to prediction markets. While we think the near-term United States

set up is challenging for online sports betting (OSB) operators, it is important to note Gaming

that the lines between sports betting, speculation, crypto, and financial markets are Julie Hoover

blurring and long-term, it could create growth opportunities for sports betting operators. Research Analyst

BofAS

Bottom line: We expect the lines between finance, crypto, and betting to continue to +1julie.hoover@bofa.com646 855 0674

blur over the coming years, and the culture of speculation continues to accelerate. In our Shaun C. Kelley

view, the next areas of innovation could be 1) perpetual futures, on crypto, financial and Research Analyst

sports and 2) continued gamification on prediction markets and sports books. +1 646 855 1005

shaun.kelley@bofa.com

Perpetual futures: $90T in volume; Kalshi just launched Dany Asad

Research Analyst

A perpetual future (“perp”) is a derivatives contract that allows traders to speculate on BofAS

an asset’s price without owning the underlying asset. Perpetuals don’t have an expiration +1 646 855 5238 dany.asad@bofa.com

date and positions can be held perpetually. Perps have over $90T of annual global

volume. Its rise in popularity comes from 1) allowing users to take levered positions (40-

150x on Bitcoin) and 2) it provides simple ways to short assets like crypto. The biggest