FIFA picked its first official prediction-market partner for the 2026 World Cup, and the brand on the badge is ADI PredictStreet. The multi-year deal was announced on 2 April 2026, days after the company secured a Gibraltar betting-intermediary licence, the territory's first prediction-market licence. The platform itself went live in June 2026, around the start of the tournament. For a UK reader, all of that is interesting background. The question that actually matters is narrower: can you log in and use it from a flat in Manchester or Glasgow?
The answer is yes, but only through a specific door, and the other door is not a UK door at all. The PredictStreet brand reaches UK and Irish customers via Matchbook's betting exchange, which sits inside a UK Gambling Commission licence. The standalone ADI PredictStreet app, the one that holds the Gibraltar licence, is a different proposition with a different legal posture. The distinction looks like a footnote. It is the entire story.
The Matchbook route is the UK route
The legitimate UK path is Matchbook. PredictStreet markets are offered to UK and Irish customers through Matchbook's betting exchange, which is operated by Triplebet Limited under Triplebet's existing UK Gambling Commission remote exchange licence. That licence is what makes the activity lawful for UK consumers, and it is what triggers the protections UK punters are used to: KYC, age and identity checks, deposit limits on request, self-exclusion via GAMSTOP, complaints routed through an approved dispute-resolution scheme such as IBAS, and the rest of the UKGC consumer framework.
A second prediction brand, easyBet, already runs on the same Triplebet licence, so the model of fronting a prediction-market product through a licensed exchange is not new. From a UK user's point of view, this is structurally similar to using any other Matchbook market. You are betting on a UKGC-licensed exchange. The branding on top is cosmetic.
There is a tax consequence worth flagging. Winnings from UK-licensed gambling are not subject to income tax for the punter, because the duty is paid upstream by the operator. Our guide to how UK and US tax treatments differ for prediction-market activity walks through what that means in practice and where the picture gets messier if you ever use offshore venues.
The direct ADI PredictStreet app is a different question
The standalone ADI PredictStreet product is licensed in Gibraltar, not by the UK Gambling Commission. Gibraltar's Gambling Commissioner Andrew Lyman has publicly defended issuing the licence, framing Gibraltar as a small, agile jurisdiction that regulates to advantage while guarding its reputation. That is a reasonable line for Gibraltar to take. It does not answer the UK question.
The UK Gambling Commission has not ruled on whether Gibraltar-licensed prediction markets may serve UK customers directly. That silence is not an endorsement, and it is not a prohibition. It is an unresolved regulatory question, and the prudent reading for a UK consumer is that the direct app should be treated with the same caution we apply to any offshore venue that lacks a UKGC licence, the same posture we take in our explainer on whether prediction markets are legal in the UK.
If the UKGC eventually rules that Gibraltar-licensed prediction markets cannot be marketed to UK consumers directly, the direct route closes. If it rules they can, the picture changes. Until then, the safe assumption is that the direct app is not a UK-facing product, regardless of whether it happens to be technically reachable.
Why the ownership and the partnerships matter, but not for legality
PredictStreet is owned through Sirius International Holding, part of Abu Dhabi's IHC, which is majority-owned by the emirate's ruling dynasty. That backing is unusual for a prediction-market venue and explains the scale of the FIFA partnership and the speed of the rollout. The company also runs a co-branded US hub with Fanatics Markets across 23 states, and there is a DAZN streaming tie-up to layer markets onto live coverage.
None of that changes the UK legal position. Heavyweight ownership does not confer a UKGC licence. A FIFA partnership does not confer a UKGC licence. A US distribution deal with Fanatics, which operates under US state-level sports-betting rules and is structurally separate from the Gibraltar entity, does not confer a UKGC licence either. The only thing that confers UK legality on a gambling product offered to UK consumers is a UKGC licence, and PredictStreet itself holds none. Triplebet does. The Matchbook-routed product inherits that licence. The standalone app does not.
What the European backdrop tells you about direction of travel
If you want a sense of where this is heading on the continent, look at how prediction-market venues have been treated in several EU jurisdictions. France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Romania have moved against prediction markets, mostly by treating them as unlicensed gambling that falls within national monopoly or licensing regimes. The specifics differ from country to country, but the pattern is consistent: regulators have decided that a market on whether a politician wins or a team lifts a trophy is a bet, full stop, and a bet requires a domestic licence.
The UK has not made that call publicly about PredictStreet. The UK has, however, made adjacent calls before. Offshore unlicensed gambling that targets British consumers is the kind of activity the UKGC has historically intervened on, and the GAMSTOP and remote-licensing rules exist precisely to draw the line at the UK consumer rather than at the company's flag. That posture is why the Matchbook route exists at all. Putting the product inside a UKGC-licensed exchange is the cleanest way to serve UK customers without picking a fight.
Alternatives if you just want the World Cup markets
If the point of the exercise is to trade the 2026 World Cup rather than to use PredictStreet specifically, the UKGC-licensed shelves already carry the markets you want. Smarkets and Betfair Exchange both list outright winner, group stage, top scorer and the deeper prop markets across the tournament, on exchange models that look and feel similar to a prediction market. Our overview of UK-legal alternatives in the same product category is the cleanest starting point if you have not used an exchange before.
For the markets themselves, our coverage of what prediction markets are pricing in for the 2026 World Cup tracks where the money has settled across outright, group and knockout contracts. The pricing rarely moves in lockstep across venues, and the gaps are usually the most interesting part of the picture.
The practical answer
So, can you use PredictStreet in the UK? Yes, through Matchbook, on a UKGC-licensed exchange operated by Triplebet, with the full set of UK consumer protections and the usual tax-free treatment of winnings. That is the route to use. The direct ADI PredictStreet app is Gibraltar-licensed, not UKGC-licensed, and the UK regulator has not ruled on whether it may serve UK customers at all. Treat the direct app the way you would treat any offshore venue without a UK licence: cautiously, and with the awareness that the regulatory question is open.
iPredicta is a discovery platform for prediction markets, tracking contracts across UKGC-licensed exchanges and the wider international landscape so UK readers can see where a market is priced, who is licensed to offer it, and what the realistic route in actually looks like. For the 2026 World Cup specifically, that means following the same outright and group markets wherever they trade, and being clear-eyed about which venue any given UK user can actually reach without leaving the licensed perimeter.
Frequently asked questions
Is PredictStreet legal to use in the UK?
Yes, but only via Matchbook, which is the route that sits inside a UK Gambling Commission licence. PredictStreet markets are offered to UK and Irish customers through Matchbook's betting exchange, operated by Triplebet Limited under its existing UKGC remote exchange licence. That licence is what makes the activity lawful for UK consumers and triggers standard UK protections like KYC, GAMSTOP self-exclusion and dispute resolution through an approved scheme such as IBAS. The standalone ADI PredictStreet app is a separate product licensed in Gibraltar, not by the UKGC, and the UK regulator has not ruled on whether it can serve UK customers directly. For UK users, the Matchbook route is the answer; the direct app should be treated as an unresolved offshore proposition.
Does PredictStreet have a UK Gambling Commission licence of its own?
No. PredictStreet does not hold a UKGC licence in its own name. The UK-facing product reaches users through Matchbook's betting exchange, which is operated by Triplebet Limited under Triplebet's remote exchange licence with the UKGC. That arrangement is similar to easyBet, another prediction-market brand that runs on the same Triplebet licence. The standalone ADI PredictStreet app is licensed in Gibraltar by the Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner, which is a separate regulatory regime that does not, by itself, authorise marketing to UK consumers. If you want a UKGC-regulated experience of these markets, the licensed door is Matchbook, not the direct app.
Will I pay tax on winnings from PredictStreet markets via Matchbook?
No. Winnings from gambling on a UK-licensed operator are not subject to UK income tax for the punter, because gambling duty is paid by the operator upstream. Using PredictStreet markets through Matchbook, which is licensed by the UKGC, falls within that treatment, so a UK resident does not declare those winnings as income. The picture gets more complicated if you ever use an unlicensed offshore venue, where the tax treatment in principle is the same but the practical risks around the underlying activity are different. Our guide to how UK and US tax treatments compare goes through the edge cases in more detail, including record-keeping and what to do if HMRC ever asks.
Why is PredictStreet licensed in Gibraltar and not the UK?
Gibraltar issued the licence as part of its broader strategy of being a small, agile jurisdiction for online gambling. Gibraltar's Gambling Commissioner Andrew Lyman publicly defended the decision, framing it as regulating to advantage while guarding the territory's reputation, and the licence was the first of its kind for a prediction market in Gibraltar. That gives PredictStreet a regulated home base from which to operate internationally. It does not solve the separate question of how to serve each individual country's consumers. For the UK specifically, the answer the company chose was to route through a UKGC-licensed exchange rather than apply for a UKGC licence directly, which is why Matchbook is in the picture at all.
What are the best UK-legal alternatives for trading the 2026 World Cup?
Smarkets and Betfair Exchange are the two obvious starting points. Both are UKGC-licensed exchanges with deep coverage of the 2026 World Cup, including outright winner, group qualification, top scorer and a long tail of prop markets, on exchange mechanics that look and feel close to a prediction market. Matchbook itself, the venue that fronts the PredictStreet markets, is a third UKGC-licensed exchange worth checking if you want to compare prices across all three. Our overview of UK-legal alternatives walks through how the fee structures and liquidity differ, and our 2026 World Cup coverage tracks where the markets have settled across venues so you can see which book is offering the keenest price on a given outcome.