Key Takeaways

" March Madness " is about to begin. Robinhood Markets ( HOOD ) is getting in on the action.

The online trading platform on Monday said it is launching "a prediction markets hub directly within the Robinhood App, giving customers the opportunity to trade on the outcomes of some of the world's biggest events."

The hub—which the firm said initially would be available across the U.S. via Commodity Futures Trading Commission -regulated exchange KalshiEX—"will allow customers to trade contracts for what the upper bound of the (Federal Reserve's) target fed funds rate will be in May, as well as the upcoming men's and women's College Basketball Tournaments," Robinhood said.

This is the second time in just over a month that Robinhood is attempting to get into the sports events contracts game. On Feb. 3, it said it would allow users to buy event contracts on which team they thought would win the "Pro Football Championship," but suspended trading just a day later upon CFTC request.

This time, Robinhood noted that it has "been in close contact with the CFTC over the past several weeks and look forward to continuing to work with them to promote innovation in the futures, derivatives and crypto markets."

Contracts will be available to all eligible customers in the coming days, said Robinhood.

Last fall, Robinhood launched event contracts tied to the U.S. presidential election .

Robinhood shares were up 9% in late trading Monday. They have soared 135% over the past 12 months.

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