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About Christmas Catch
Younger patrons are increasingly familiar with crypto, but the lack of regulatory adoption in the regulated space can push bettors to offshore or unlicensed platforms, most of which do accept it. At the ICE Barcelona conference in 2025, a panel of international sports betting CEOs lamented the fact that they were barred from adopting crypto, while their black-market competitors were not.
A report released in June by payment provider Paysafe said the percentage of online sports bettors who dabble in crypto is 64%, more than double the US average of 30%. Crypto deposits are only legal in two states, Wyoming and Colorado, but crypto withdrawals are not legal anywhere – 85% of respondents said they would welcome withdrawals as an option, Paysafe said.
“When permitted, crypto would become a top-three payment option for funding deposits (after digital wallets and debit cards), and a top-two payment preference in New York and Illinois,” the report said.
About Christmas Catch
“Because you’re a small business, you need to pick your battles,” Wilson says. “I can’t go and get 10 licences this year. It’s just unrealistic. It would require so much work that it would distract us. Now we have that ability through our relationship with RubyPlay, and we are grabbing that opportunity with both hands.”
There is also a natural product opportunity. Splash Tech has traditionally been weighted towards sports within free-to-play, while RubyPlay brings a substantial casino ecosystem. For Wilson, the agreement creates a chance for Splash Tech to bring its distinctive engagement thinking into the RubyPlay world, planting a seed for future products that combine Splash Tech’s free-to-play and jackpot expertise with RubyPlay’s content ecosystem, market knowledge and distribution reach.
For RubyPlay, Splash Tech supplies a way to move beyond games and towards a broader content-and-engagement proposition. For Splash Tech, RubyPlay supplies the reach to take already proven products further. And for operators, the value is practical: a flexible engagement layer that can sit across casino, sportsbook and third-party content, reduce operational complexity and create more reasons for players to keep coming back.
How to play Christmas Catch
Prediction markets have become more and more intertwined with sports and entertainment businesses. Polymarket has agreements with Major League Baseball and Sportsradar. Sportsradar provides data and services for more than 20 sports leagues and competitions.
The company has also pursued partnerships outside the normal financial media. Its deals include relationships with major sports organizations and entertainment properties, signaling efforts to integrate prediction markets into mainstream content and information services.
The conclusion of the Yahoo Finance deal comes as there is more talk about the use of prediction market data in journalism. Operators such as Polymarket and rival Kalshi have touted their markets as a way to get real-time information on how likely future events are to occur.
