TLDR
- Wire Industries, parent of WagerWire, received approval in principle for a Gibraltar prediction market license
- Wire Markets becomes only the second prediction market licensed in Gibraltar, after ADI Predictstreet
- The platform plans to launch in fall 2026 with sports contracts, then expand to pop culture, weather and economic markets
- WagerWire is building a “sell-it-now” button that lets bettors instantly exit positions using its prediction market as a hedge
- Gibraltar’s license is seen as a “passport” for expansion into Latin America, Africa, Asia Pacific and parts of Europe
WagerWire co-founders Travis Geiger, Zach Doctor and Guy Dotan started with a simple idea: let bettors trade their sports wagers like commodities. Five years later, that idea has grown into a plan to build a global prediction market.
Wire Industries, the parent company of WagerWire, announced this week that Gibraltar has approved in principle a license for Wire Markets to operate a peer-to-peer prediction market. The approval makes Wire Markets only the second prediction market licensed in the British Overseas Territory.
The first was ADI Predictstreet, owned by the Abu Dhabi royal family and named the official prediction market of the upcoming FIFA World Cup. That license came in March 2026.
Gibraltar’s Minister for Justice, Trade and Industry, Nigel Feetham KC MP, confirmed the approval. He said WagerWire’s background in liquidity, price discovery and consumer choice made it a suitable applicant.
Why Gibraltar
The founders see the Gibraltar license as more than just permission to operate in one small territory. They believe it carries “portability” — meaning regulators in other markets tend to view it favorably.
Geiger said the license could act as a “passport” to operate across Latin America, Africa, Asia Pacific and parts of Europe. The connection to Gibraltar came through an advisor who heard the founders pitch at ICE Barcelona in January 2026.
WagerWire plans to launch Wire Markets in the fall of 2026. It has not yet announced specific markets, but Doctor confirmed that sports event contracts will be offered with “deeper” coverage than what current prediction market platforms provide.
The company also plans to expand into pop culture, weather and economic markets. It will avoid political and geopolitical contracts. Geiger called those low-volume, and Doctor said the company is “morally against” them.
A New Tool to Exit Bets Instantly
One feature in development is a “sell-it-now” button for existing WagerWire users. The tool would allow bettors to instantly sell an unresolved wager at a price between the sportsbook’s cash-out value and the true secondary market price.
Dotan explained that WagerWire would buy the bet from the user and immediately hedge its exposure using Wire Markets. The company would take the opposite side of the contract through its own prediction market, making the transaction risk-neutral.
This feature links WagerWire’s existing secondary market for sports bets directly to its new prediction market exchange.
The founders said sportsbooks have been slow to adopt their secondary market API, which was vetted by Gaming Labs International. They attribute this partly to what Geiger called an “aversion to innovation” among established operators.
That resistance pushed them toward the Gibraltar model and a direct-to-consumer exchange instead.
US Plans Remain on the Table
Wire Markets intends to hire compliance staff in Gibraltar and expand its team globally. The founders have not confirmed the number of new hires.
For the US market, the company is watching for a path through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Geiger pointed to deals like FanDuel’s partnership with CME Group and Fanatics’ deal with Crypto.com as potential models for bringing Wire Markets stateside.
“We are definitely maintaining the U.S.,” Geiger said.
