Morgan Stanley Joins NEXTPredict as Prediction Markets Bet on 'More Institutional' Play

In brief

• Morgan Stanley has joined the NEXTPredict summit in New York as a strategic partner and will lead a panel on institutional capital.
• Its analyst on the session covers U.S. gaming, lodging and leisure, the desk that also covers sportsbooks.
• Around 90% of prediction market turnover is sports, according to the summit's co-founder, and the sector's valuations assume that changes.

Institutional interest in prediction markets has not been in doubt for a while. JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon told CBS in April that the bank was weighing an entry, while describing most of the activity as closer to gambling than investing and ruling out sports and politics outright. Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon had used the firm's January earnings call to disclose meetings with both of the largest operators. Thus far, however, there has been little in the way of concrete progress to speak of.

Morgan Stanley is stepping into the breach, taking a formal role at the NEXTPredict summit in New York on October 22 and 23 as a strategic partner and leading a day-two panel on institutional capital. Pierre Lindh, co-founder and managing director of NEXT.io, says it is the first bank to put its name to a public-facing initiative in the category.