DraftKings DKeX Could Generate Up to $57M in NFL Season Exchange Fees, Jefferies Says

DraftKings may be staring at as much as $57 million in prediction market exchange fees during the NFL season alone, according to a new Jefferies report. For high-risk operators, the useful part is not the headline number itself, but the signal: exchange fees may scale faster and more predictably than market-making revenue in this vertical.

1. Jefferies analyst David Katz said DraftKings’ DKeX has already generated $42 million in contract volume, based on two NFL matchups: the New England Patriots vs. the Seattle Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams vs. the San Francisco 49ers.
2. Those two games produced $106,000 in market fees for the platform. Katz then extrapolated that the NFL season could push total exchange fees to roughly $57 million, with the first full NFL Sunday of the season positioned to be one of the largest trading days in prediction market history.
3. Katz’s point was that exchange fees look like the more recurring and predictable revenue stream, while market-making economics depend on spreads, inventory management, hedging, and event outcomes. In other words, the fee line is cleaner than the trading book.
4. That said, Katz also described DraftKings as still “just a minnow” compared with sector leaders Kalshi and Polymarket, which is a useful reminder that the growth story is real, but the competitive position is still early.
5. The report lands amid strong regulator pushback and a live debate over the legality of prediction markets, especially those tied to sports events. DraftKings has launched its own platform supporting such contracts through DKeX, trying to get an early foothold rather than arrive after the market has already sorted itself out.

DraftKings has also claimed it is up and running in all states in the United States, pointing to DraftKings Prediction as another prediction market subsidiary. That claim has drawn skepticism, with Nevada cited as a state where prediction markets are not legally accepted.