Why Robinhood Stock Just Popped

By Rich Smith – Dec 18, 2025 at 1:05PM ESTKey PointsRobinhood has announced new AI-powered trading tools for Robinhood Gold members.The company is also rolling out new ways to bet on sports.These 10 Stocks Could Mint the Next Wave of Millionaires ›NASDAQ: HOODRobinhood MarketsMarket Cap$104BToday's Changeangle-down(2.60%) $3.01Current Price$118.81Price as of December 18, 2025 at 2:01 PM ETSports gambling might help Robinhood grow its profits from $2.2 billion to $6.3 billion in five years.Robinhood (HOOD +2.60%) stock is up 2.7% as of 12:40 p.m. ET Thursday. Robinhood investors are reacting to an announcement that first appeared on the company's blog two days ago -- which received wide attention yesterday afternoon: Robinhood is doubling down on sports betting. Image source: Getty Images. Robinhood's brain That's not precisely how Robinhood would describe it, of course. The title of the company's blog post Tuesday used more neutral terms such as "AI innovations" and "prediction markets" to describe the rollout of its "next era of intelligent investing" for customers. The AI part refers to Robinhood Cortex, an "AI-powered investing assistant" for Robinhood Gold subscribers, which appears designed to convert natural language inquiries into instructions to buy and sell securities under specific conditions. But it's the "prediction markets" bit that I think is really exciting investors this week. Noting that "prediction markets have become Robinhood's fastest-growing product line by revenue ever, with 11 billion contracts traded by more than 1 million customers," Robinhood is doubling down on sports gambling. Going forward, the company says "customers will be able to trade preset combos for individual Pro Football games," including by betting on "outcomes, totals, and spreads within a single game."Advertisement ExpandNASDAQ: HOODRobinhood MarketsToday's Change(2.60%) $3.01Current Price$118.81Key Data PointsMarket Cap$104BDay's Range$117.48 - $124.2252wk Range$29.66 - $153.86Volume717KAvg Vol32MGross Margin89.78% How much money could Robinhood make? The company plans to further emphasize the sports gambling market going forward, promising to soon provide data on "Anytime TD, Passing Yards, Receiving Yards, Rushing Yards" -- and hinting it may be possible to gamble on these stats as well in the future. Is all of this moral? Perhaps not, but it does look profitable, and could help Robinhood hit analyst targets for 23% average annual earnings growth over the next five years. On $2.2 billion in trailing profit, that implies nearly $6.3 billion in profit for Robinhood by 2030.About the AuthorRich Smith is a contributing Motley Fool defense and stock market analyst covering publicly traded and emerging companies in defense, space, aerospace, and other sectors. Prior to The Motley Fool, Rich practiced international corporate law for Clifford Chance in Russia, and for the Russian-Ukrainian Legal Group in Moscow, Kyiv, and Washington, D.C. He holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the College of William & Mary, a law degree from the University of Baltimore, and a language certification from the International Institute of Russian Language & Culture in Tver, Russian Federation. The Globe and Mail once featured him as “one of the best stock pickers since 2009.”TMFDittyX@RichSmithFoolRead NextDec 16, 2025 •By Eric VolkmanWhy Robinhood Stock Was Bumping Higher TodayDec 14, 2025 •By Marc GubertiRobinhood vs. SoFi: Which Fintech Stock Is Better?Dec 13, 2025 •By Leo SunThe Best Fintech Stocks to Buy With $500 Right NowDec 12, 2025 •By Reuben Gregg BrewerIs Robinhood Stock a Millionaire Maker?Dec 11, 2025 •By Eric VolkmanWhy Robinhood Stock Got Slammed TodayDec 10, 2025 •By Josh CableRobinhood Stock Is Up Roughly 90% in the Last 6 Months.

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