Barn Busters

About Barn Busters

The state-backed Nederlandse Loterij has ordered the operators of the unauthorised gambling site Skyhills to cease serving Dutch players.

This action came in the wake of a recent court ruling in a separate case involving Lalabet.

On Tuesday, Nederlandse Loterij announced it had sent a cease-and-desist notice to companies and directors connected with Skyhills across several jurisdictions, including Costa Rica, North Macedonia, the United Kingdom, Curaçao, Malta and the Marshall Islands. 

What is Barn Busters?

Potentially boding well for the Macquarie forecast are at least two factors. First, there are signs of turnover increases across a variety of yes/no exchanges. Second, volume surged to start September with those spikes arriving even before the NFL season kicked off.

As Macquarie analyst Chad Beynon points out, prediction markets generated $4.3 billion in taker volume during the first week of September without any help from the NFL, building on momentum from the 2026 World Cup. However, the NFL’s impact was immediate, with taker volume hitting a daily record during Week 1 of the campaign.

With all that in mind, it’s not surprising that Macquarie expects sports event contracts will drive approximately 80% of taker volume this year, but Beynon sees other categories growing over the long term.

What is Barn Busters?

Another bettor noted that gambling debts fractured personal relationships: “Sports betting ruined my six years of friendship because I couldn’t pay back the borrowed loan from my friend. He stopped talking to me.”

Americans wagered nearly $167 billion on sports in 2025 through regulated sportsbooks, an 11% increase year-over-year, according to data from the American Gaming Association (AGA).

The blurring line between financial investing and gambling has been accelerated by the rise of prediction markets—exchanges offering event contracts that are federally regulated as financial derivatives. U.S. News found that over 40% of active sports bettors now also participate in sports prediction markets.