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Hit-Boy has made chart-topping beats for the likes of Beyoncé, Jay Z, Nas and Doechii but behind the scenes he was stuck in a restrictive publishing deal. In this interview, Hit-Boy talks But now he’s in full control of his art and his story. He’ll also dive into his creative process and how he’s walking the line of AI and art.
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E-Commerce
When it comes to the battle of the prediction markets, which player are you betting on? Fanatics, the global sports platform, is out to prove that sportsbooks will be the emerging industry’s biggest winners. Today, Fanatics is launching a stand-alone predictions market app designed to appeal to the fans who already buy its apparel and collectibles. It’s the first of the major sportsbooks to move into prediction marketsand almost certainly won’t be the last. Prediction markets are one of the top things that fans want to do these days, says Matt King, who leads betting and gaming for Fanatics. People want to be able to express their opinions on not just sports, but entertainment, culture, and everything under the sun. King, the former CEO of FanDuel, oversaw Fanatics expansion into sports betting in 2023 with a sportsbook that now operates online in 22 states and Washington D.C. With prediction markets, King sees a way to give people the ability to speculate on different asset classes, different trades, all in one place. The demographic that is core to both Fanatics and prediction marketsmen in their 20s and 30s, who likely watch sports and trade cryptoare seeking the ability to profit if theyre right, King says. Fanatics Markets will be available to users aged 21 and up in 10 states this afternoon, and an additional 14 by the end of the weekall places where Fanatics Sportsbook & Casino is currently unavailable. The trading categories featured in the app include live games, major league matchups, economic indicators, and elections. (Later releases will include crypto, pop culture, movies, and more.) Fanatics designed the apps user experience, partnering with Crypto.com to operate the derivatives exchange that powers the underlying market and its pricing. The Android app will go live first, followed by iOS. Prediction markets are an adaptation of traditional futures markets, which allow traders to buy and sell contracts associated with future events. Originally a hedging tool designed to protect farmers in the event of a poor harvest, the contracts have been repackaged as an internet-era way to bet on news. Since winning greater regulatory clarity last year, prediction markets have been growing at a breakneck pace. Weekly trading volume now extends into the billions of dollars, with a significant portion of those dollars dedicated to sports. In late October, for example, industry pioneer Kalshi posted weekly notional trading volumes of more than $1 billion in sports, making the category its most popular by far. For those arguing prediction markets are a positive because they can generate meaningful signal… volume on Kalshi is *overwhelmingly* just sports gambling: pic.twitter.com/jh1Z22DsRh— Jason Mikula (@mikulaja) December 2, 2025 Numbers like those have convinced sportsbooks to get off the sidelines. If you look at the inherent customer base, the experience that we have in this business, its super exciting for us, Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin told CNBC last month. Customers want this product, and we want to give it to the customers. GROWING COMPETITION Meaningfully, prediction markets also give Fanatics an opportunity to try to leapfrog U.S. sports betting leaders FanDuel and DraftKings, which together control roughly 80% of the market. Fanatics sports betting operation generated $300 million in revenue in 2024; its market share, while growing, is in the single digits. Structurally, prediction markets are vastly different to operate than sportsbooks, in which the operator serves as the house. But to fans, the underlying impulse is the same: putting money on a predicted outcome. While Fanatics is making the first move, FanDuel has teamed up with CME Group and has a product in the works. DraftKings says it is watching how things unfold, according to CEO Jason Robins. Stock and crypto trading platforms see prediction markets as an opportunity, too. Robinhood unveiled its prediction markets feature last fall, just in time for the presidential election. Leaked screenshots suggest that Coinbase, in pursuit of its goal of becoming an everything exchange, could unveil a prediction market offering, in partnership with Kalshi, later this month. Meanwhile, Kalshi and Polymarket are attracting significant investor interest. In October, Polymarket raised up to $2 billion in strategic capital from ICE, parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, and Kalshi followed suit with a $1 billion round on Tuesday, led by Paradigm. As Fanatics prepares to go head-to-head with existing exchanges, King says he sees Fanatics strong brand as an essential asset. We think a combination of the brand, a good product experience, and our rewards proposition means that well have a big chunk of customers that play with us, he says. But we don’t think its winner take all. We recognize it’s going to be a competitive industry. PLACING BETS, AMASSING REWARDS Fanatics has positioned itself at the center of sports fandom in recent years. In addition to selling licensed apparel, it now offers trading cards, collectibles, and memorabilia. Its live events arm produces the annual Fanatics Fest in New York City, which has become something of the Comic Con of sports. The companys Fanatics ONE rewards program, meanwhile, knits together these disparate arms, offering users rewards for betting and shopping. In the coming months, King expects to integrate Fanatics Markets with Fanatics ONE. Users might earn rewards points the more they trade, for example. You’ll also see traders, the more they trade, unlock benefits that are really only available to our best users, whether thats access to exclusive merch drops, or free tickets to Fanatics Fest, or other things like that, he says. It’s a formula weve seen work in the other categories that we operate in, and so we know there’s a huge overlap between the customer demographic, trading and prediction markets, and some of our other core businesses. Spots is emerging as a prediction markets linchpin because of the frequency and regularity of the events it comprises. Month in, month out, theres always something going on, says Travis McGhee, global head of predictions at Crypto.com. Prior to its Fanatics collaboration, Crypto.com launched sports event trading last December. The trading platform also announced a prediction markets partnership with Underdog, a fantasy and sports gaming company, in September. But even sports-first Fanatics sees potential in a broader realm of trading possibilities. Sports is the most intuitive [category] to net-new users, King says of prediction markets. But he expects to see sports fans expand their trading activity to new categories as they get more comfortable with the format. If you think about the papal election, when there were a lot of Chicagoans rooting for our man, that was incredibly popular on a relative basis, he says. And I think if that were to happen again today, it would be orders of magnitude more popular, because you have so many more users that are on these platforms and aware that they can now express an opinion. Sports leagues have their offseasons. But if Fanatics has its way, there will always be a reason for fans to log on and put money down.
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E-Commerce
Flying often first requires crawling, in a car, in slow or stopped traffic that eventually treats you to a view of airplanes soaring away from your ground-anchored vehicular misery. After decades of hype about flying cars, the past 10 years have seen a pivot to something of a car-plane hybrid: an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that provides taxi-like service. In conceptall we have to go by, since the only way to watch an eVTOL speeding somebody to LAX is in a computer-rendered videothis can look appealing. But after years of promising services that have yet to take off, eVTOL startups need to go beyond impressing investors. They need to prove to regulators that they can deliver safe, reliable service in already-crowded airspace. And then they need to earn the business of paying customers who have other transportation choices. Their basic bet that enough people will spend potentially large sums of money to save time is not crazy. But its hardly a sure thing, either. To understand the gap between a private demo and public service, consider Joby Aviation, a Santa Cruz, California, firm that says its within months of launching commercial operations. At Novembers Web Summit conference in Lisbon, Portugal, the company pitched its vision for the eVTOL future. This is not just a rendering, this is not just an idea, vouched Eric Allison, chief product officer. Joby Aviations Eric Allison at Web Summit 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal [Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile for Web Summit via Getty Images] But the first use case he laid out did not involve whisking people to San Francisco International Airport. Instead, he talked up how Jobys six-rotor eVTOL aircraftwhich seats four passengers and a pilot, can hit 200 mph, and offers a maximum range of 150 miles on a chargecould replace the driving commute he endured from Mountain View to downtown San Francisco. That trip that took me one and a half hours on a daily basis could maybe take 15 minutes if we don’t go on the road but we fly, he said. Outside of the opening credits of Futurama, however, the idea of large numbers of people packing into air taxis to get to a crowded business district doesnt scale. Plus, we already know how to upgrade a commute like that: not with expensive aircraft transporting a few people each but with fast and frequent train service. Like, for example, the quick, quiet electric-powered trains now plying Caltrain routes up and down the peninsula. Product-market fits Allison expanded on Jobys plans for service to airportsdestinations that already feature landing facilities and have traffic spread more evenly throughout the dayand its partnerships with Delta Air Lines, Virgin Atlantic, and All Nippon Airways (ANA). Predicting passenger service in Dubai next year, Allison emphasized that Joby isnt flying vaporware: This is something that we are executing on. In an interview after his presentation, he offered a more grounded version of Jobys pitch for its S4 battery-electric air taxi. The companys ambitions for its eVTOL do include speedy aerial commutes for the well-heeled, something Joby is already exploring via the Blade Air Mobility helicopter service it bought in August in a transaction valued at $125 million. In November, Blade announced the start of weekday helicopter commuting flights between Westchester County Airport and Manhattan at fares of $125 to $225 per ride. Allison said the company aims to beat those rates with its eVTOL service and instead roughly match Uber Black pricing on a per-seat basis. We think there’s a ton of potential in most of the highly congested big cities, not just in the U.S. but around the world, he said. Uber isnt merely a comparison point but a partner; in 2021, Joby bought the ride-hail companys Uber Elevate division while Uber deepened its investment in Joby from $50 million to $125 million and agreed to integrate Jobys future services into its apps. Jobys business model doesnt assume software will replace a human pilot, although Allison allowed that in the long run, we think autonomy plays a big role in this. Competing costs But airport trips constitute the bulk of Jobys pitch. On that front, Allison acknowledged that the company will have to compete with existing tansit options. Thats a reality often left out of eVTOL pitches that pretend single-seat airport rides like Chicagos CTA Blue Line to OHare, San Franciscos BART to SFO, and Washingtons Metro to Dulles International Airport dont already offer traffic-immune service between city centers and international airports at fares as low as $2.50. We’re not looking to replace public transport, Allison said. Were creating a new option that has unique features that you can’t get through any of the other modes. [Photo: Joby Aviation] First among them is speed, but theres also the view that Blade passengers enjoy today: You just get this fantastic view of the skyline as you’re flying down the river and swinging over to go to the airport, Allison said. For what Blade chargesits site lists fares from $195 to $295 for flights from Manhattan to JFKthat view had better be exceptional. Uber, meanwhile, quoted about $145 for an Uber Black ride from midtown Manhattan to JFK and $100 for UberX early on the Tuesday afternoon of Thanksgiving week. Taking New Yorks subway or the Long Island Rail Road to the AirTrain that links those transit systems to JFK (a two-seat itinerary less convenient and pricier than the airport-rail options in Chicago, D.C., or San Francisco) costs $11.40 to $15.50 for most riders. Infrastructure weaknesses Efficient eVTOL rides will demand a long series of sign-offs from local infrastructure operators and authorities. The easiest looks to be agreements with airports to streamline a passenger connection apart from the usual passenger entrances. Joby is working with Delta and other airline partners on that, Allison said. He added that Joby is assuming airport transfers will need time for travelers to clear security at their departing terminal. Its eVTOL, meanwhile, will need time for a quick, 10-minute battery charge. Joby will also need to build out vertiports for its aircraft across its target markets, which will be a lot more involved than clearing space for its operations at airports. A lawsuit the company filed against its rival Archer Aviation offered a peek at one part of that strategy: exclusive deals with property developers, one of which Joby alleges its former executive George Kivork disrupted by taking sensitive data about that deal to Archer. Archer denied the allegations in a statement from Eric Lentell, chief legal and strategy officer, that read, in part: Joby alleges we used their trade secrets to win a deal with a developer but the reality is that Archer has no deal with this developer and Mr. Kivork did not bring any Joby confidential information to Archer. Joby, in turn, declined to comment beyond the details of its complaint, filed in Santa Cruz Superior Court on November 19. The regulatory road ahead Getting this far has not been cheap for Joby. On November 5, the firm reported a Q3 loss of $401 million, versus $144 million in the year-ago quarter, with $978 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments. Securing U.S. regulatory approval of its eVTOL will clear the companys path to revenue service. On the day of its earnings release, it announced that it had begun powered-up testing of the first aircraft built to the final design that the Federal Aviation Administration will need to certify. Joby aims to have test flights, conducted by its own and FAA pilots, start later this year. Allison declined to predict when the FAA will issue a type certification for its eVTOL. The company is exploring ways to launch pre-commercial operations in Dubai ahead of that certification. In the U.S. it plans to apply for a new eVTOL pilot-operations program announced by the FAA in Septemberthe latest in a series of moves by the air-safety agency to adapt its regulations for this new category of aircraft. [Photo: Joby Aviation] But overall, Jobys plans envisage FAA certification
Category:
E-Commerce
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