Connamara Technologies today announced that EP3, its award-winning exchange, clearing and surveillance platform, now supports bilateral matching, enabling exchange operators to build markets where trades are governed by bilateral counterparty agreements rather than central clearing.
The new capability helps global customers meet regulatory requirements for bilateral trading while expanding the range of market structures that EP3 supports.
Connamara developed the bilateral matching capability for BEE4, a Brazilian operator of an organized over-the-counter market authorized and supervised by the Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM).
Unlike centrally cleared markets, bilateral markets require order matching to account for contractual agreements and notional limits between counterparties. EP3’s new bilateral matching algorithm validates these agreements and terms during the matching process to determine whether orders are eligible to execute.
This update also includes:
API endpoints for creating and modifying bilateral agreements.
Market data that presents participant-specific executable quantities based on bilateral agreements.
Configurable matching algorithms on a per-instrument basis, allowing different instruments on the same exchange to use different matching logic.
Automatic bilateral limit adjustment with real-time trade clearing
“Operating a market authorized and supervised by the CVM means reliability, transparency and control must guide every technology decision we make,” said Rodrigo Fiszman, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board at BEE4. “The bilateral matching capability Connamara Technologies built into EP3 gives us a purpose-built way to bring buyers and sellers together while accounting for counterparty agreements and limits. It supports the standards expected in a regulated market and gives us a strong foundation for expanding access to Brazil’s capital markets.”
“As new markets emerge, exchange operators need technology that can support different trading models,” said Jim Downs, Co-Founder and CEO. “Bilateral matching enables our customers to reach new market participants while expanding the types of markets EP3 can support.”
Bilateral matching represents another step in the continued evolution of EP3’s extensible, modular exchange platform. By supporting additional matching models, EP3 continues to expand the range of market structures it can serve while addressing the evolving needs of a diverse global client base.
About Connamara Technologies
Connamara Technologies is the leading provider of fully integrated exchange, clearing and market surveillance infrastructure, empowering new and existing exchanges to operate with exceptional efficiency and reliability. Its EP3® platform is a new breed of exchange technology that seamlessly integrates all key functions into a single, robust platform. It is adaptable, scalable, and quick to market. Engineered for the evolving needs of the next generation of exchanges and marketplaces, EP3 is shaping the future of financial markets.
An Interview with Chief Revenue Officer, Daniel Davis.
Originally published in A-Team Insight‘s TradingTech Insight Awards USA 2026 Winner’s Report.
Until fairly recently, the central question facing US prediction markets was whether they would exist at all – whether regulators would tolerate event contracts, whether retail venues could clear the institutional bar, whether the category was anything more than a niche curiosity at the edge of financial markets. The questions now are practical ones: how prediction markets operate at institutional scale, how they integrate with the broader market ecosystem, and how oversight extends across an exchange’s full operational footprint, not just its order book. Connamara Technologies sits beneath much of that activity. Its EP3® platform – an integrated exchange, clearing, and surveillance system – powers a majority of the new CFTC-licensed venues launched since 2024, including ForecastEx, Railbird, and ElectronX. On Election Night 2024, EP3 cleared $560 million in US election prediction contracts for ForecastEx, according to the firm – a public stress test for a category that until recently had operated mostly at the margins. EP3 was named Best Matching Engine for Prediction / Event Markets at the TradingTech Insight USA Awards 2026. We spoke to Daniel Davis, Chief Revenue Officer at Connamara Technologies, about what the recognition reflects, how the category has matured, and where the infrastructure beneath these markets goes next.
TTI: EP3 has been named Best Matching Engine for Prediction / Event Markets at the TradingTech Insight USA Awards. What does this recognition mean to Connamara, and how does it reflect where the business is today?
DD: We’re honored by the recognition, but what excites us most is what it says about the market. Prediction markets have evolved from a niche category into a serious segment of regulated finance, and that requires institutional-grade technology. The award reflects the success of our clients as much as our technology. Firms are launching exchanges, clearinghouses, and new asset classes on EP3 because they need technology that is resilient, scalable, and regulatory-ready from day one. More broadly, it reflects our evolution as a company. We are no longer just building matching engines. We are helping operators build and run entire markets.
TTI: Prediction and event markets have moved from a niche curiosity to a serious institutional category in a remarkably short space of time. From your vantage point as the technology layer beneath many of these venues, what’s actually driving that shift – and what’s changed in the conversations you’re having with prospective operators over the past 18 months?
DD: The biggest change is legitimacy. Eighteen months ago, the conversation was whether prediction markets would survive regulatory scrutiny. Today, the conversation is about scale, liquidity, clearing, and institutional access. Regulated venues have proven there is demand. Brokers and market makers are getting involved, and institutions increasingly view event contracts as another way to express risk. The market has moved from proving it can exist to figuring out how to operate at institutional scale. That is where we are seeing the most interest and investment.
TTI: Why are so many newly regulated exchanges and clearinghouses choosing to launch on EP3?
DD: Operators launching regulated markets need more than a matching engine. They need a foundation they can grow on. What resonates with customers is the combination of speed, flexibility, and regulatory readiness. They can launch quickly without sacrificing long-term scalability. Just as importantly, EP3 supports multiple asset classes and market models on a common platform. That gives operators the flexibility to evolve their business without rebuilding their core technology. Ultimately, we help firms reduce the distance between an idea and a live regulated market.
TTI: EP3’s architecture integrates matching, clearing, and surveillance within a single platform, rather than relying on best-of-breed components stitched together. What does that integrated model unlock for operators that a more modular, multi-vendor stack can’t – and where, if anywhere, does the trade-off cut the other way?
DD: The biggest benefit is a shared source of truth. Many market operators spend enormous amounts of time and money reconciling data across trading, clearing, risk, and surveillance systems. Every handoff introduces latency, complexity, and operational risk. By integrating those functions on a common platform, operators gain a more complete view of market activity and can respond to risk, compliance, and operational events more quickly. 11 www.tradingtechinsight.com2026 There are certainly cases where firms may want specialized third-party solutions, and we support that. But for many operators, especially new exchanges and clearinghouses, reducing complexity is often more valuable than adding another vendor.
TTI: Election Night 2024 saw ForecastEx clear $560 million in US election prediction contracts on EP3 – a genuine stress-test moment for the category. What did that night look like from your side, and what did it confirm or change about how you think about resilience and capacity in event-driven markets?
DD: Election Night was a defining moment for the category. Unlike traditional markets, prediction markets experience concentrated bursts of activity when new information arrives. Volume, volatility, risk calculations, and settlement activity can all spike simultaneously. For us, it was validation that event-driven markets require technology built for those moments. Capacity is important, but so are observability, operational readiness, and the ability to scale across the entire market lifecycle. The biggest takeaway was that prediction and event markets are no longer experimental. They are operating at a scale where resilience and reliability are table stakes.
TTI: The platform spans binary and multi-outcome event contracts, regulated derivatives, tokenised real-world assets, energy and climate markets, and digital assets. How much of the underlying technology genuinely transfers across those asset classes, and where do operators still need meaningfully different capabilities?
DD: More than most people think. At their core, markets share many of the same requirements: matching, clearing, risk management, surveillance, market data, and regulatory reporting. What changes is the product model and risk profile, not the fundamental technology. We designed EP3 around that principle. A market operator should not have to rebuild their technology stack every time they launch a new product or enter a new asset class. Reusable technology accelerates innovation and reduces operational risk.
TTI: Prediction markets sit at an unusual intersection of retail accessibility, institutional capital, and regulatory scrutiny – with the CFTC, state regulators, and the courts all actively shaping the perimeter. How is that environment influencing the capabilities operators are asking you to build, particularly around surveillance and compliance?
DD: As markets mature, expectations around oversight mature with them. Most discussions around surveillance focus on trading activity, such as market manipulation, insider information, or abusive trading behavior. Those are certainly important, but regulated exchanges and clearinghouses also need visibility into operational activity. 12 www.tradingtechinsight.com2026 Many of the highest-risk events in a market are not trades. They are balance adjustments, manual interventions, permissions changes, contract resolutions, settlement actions, or other administrative activities that can directly impact participants and market integrity. As a result, we’re seeing growing demand for operational surveillance alongside traditional market surveillance. Exchanges want automated alerts, four-eye approval workflows, audit trails, and controls that help operators identify unusual activity before it becomes a regulatory or operational issue. The broader trend is that regulators and market operators increasingly expect oversight of the entire exchange lifecycle, not just the order book. Surveillance is evolving from monitoring trading activity to monitoring the operation of the market itself.
TTI: Looking into 2026 and beyond, where do you see EP3 – and the prediction and event markets category more broadly – heading? Are there specific products, asset classes, or operator types you expect to drive the next phase of growth?
DD: The next phase of growth will be driven by connectivity and institutional participation. The first chapter of prediction and event markets was proving they could exist. The next chapter is integrating them into the broader financial ecosystem through brokers, market makers, clearing firms, and institutional workflows. We expect to see continued growth in event contracts, tokenized assets, environmental products, power/compute, and other emerging market categories. More importantly, we expect those markets to become increasingly interconnected. The long-term opportunity is not a collection of isolated venues. It’s an ecosystem where liquidity, pricing, and risk can move efficiently across markets. That is the technology we are building toward. The shape of the next phase is becoming clearer. Connectivity and institutional participation – brokers, market makers, clearing firms routing flow into event contracts the way they route flow into any other instrument – will determine whether prediction markets stay a self-contained category or become a routine layer of the wider market ecosystem. The infrastructure beneath them is being asked to support that transition: not just to match orders at scale, but to interoperate with the rest of the financial plumbing. The expansion of surveillance is part of that same maturation. Regulated venues are increasingly expected to monitor the operational lifecycle of the exchange itself – balance adjustments, manual interventions, contract resolutions and administrative actions – alongside the order book. Whether that becomes a defining feature of regulated prediction markets specifically, or a baseline expectation across electronic venues more broadly, is one of the open questions worth tracking through 2026.
Congratulations to the winners of the 2026 TradingTech Insight Awards USA, announced at the TradingTech Summit in New York on 11 June.
Now in their eighth year, the awards recognise the vendors, platforms and service providers delivering the technology, data and services on which North American capital markets depend – at a point when the demands placed on that infrastructure are shifting faster than at almost any time before.
This year’s categories span the full trading lifecycle, from matching engines, order and execution management, and low-latency feed handlers through to market data delivery, transaction cost analysis, surveillance and trade reporting. Read together, the winners map the priorities now reshaping front-to-back trading operations: the move to cloud-native architecture, the operationalisation of AI across execution and compliance, the steady institutionalisation of digital asset and prediction markets infrastructure, and growing pressure on legacy systems to interoperate rather than stand alone.
Winners were identified through a combination of votes from the TradingTech Insight community and the deliberations of an independent advisory board, drawn from senior practitioners across the buy side, sell side and trading infrastructure.
Our thanks go to every firm that took part, to the advisory board for their time and judgment, and to the readers whose votes underpin the result.
WINNER 2026 BEST MATCHING ENGINE FOR PREDICTION / EVENT MARKETS
Connamara Technologies is the company enabling the most exciting and innovative markets in the world. Its flagship product, EP3®, is a new breed of marketplace technology that seamlessly integrates all exchange, clearing, and market surveillance functions into a single, robust platform. It is adaptable, scalable, and quick to market. Engineered for the evolving needs of the next generation of trading venues, EP3 is shaping the future of financial markets. www.connamara.tech www.tradingtechinsight.com Connamara Technologies EP3® is a fully integrated exchange infrastructure platform for modern markets. It enables new and emerging exchanges across crypto, predictions, sports, energy, and tokenized assets to launch efficiently and operate on a single, cohesive technology stack.
EP3 combines trade matching, clearing, settlement, surveillance, risk management, reporting, administration, and market access within one high-performance application, reducing operational complexity and reliance on multiple vendors. Originally incubated at Connamara Systems, EP3 was formally launched as a standalone platform in 2022, bringing together proven exchange architecture with a cloud-native, modular design. The result is a product that provides exchange operators with a flexible, production-ready platform that supports innovation while meeting demanding performance and regulatory requirements. Since launch, EP3 has been adopted by over a dozen exchanges and clearinghouses worldwide, supporting regulated markets in predictions, energy derivatives, sports event contracts, crypto, and tokenized real-world assets.
Connamara Technologies just took home the award for “Most Innovative Use of Open Source/Cloud Technology” at the 2026 A-Team Innovation Awards.
In less than a decade, using open source to build exchange platforms and to host the exchange in a public cloud has not only gained widespread acceptance but has become the de facto way to build an exchange.
The distinct advantages of these technologies have become evident to new exchange innovators for at least a decade. Now, established exchanges are beginning to recognize the competitive disadvantage of not leveraging them.
Ten years ago, innovators looking to bring a new exchange-traded product to market faced significant upfront costs: both to build the software and to invest in the hardware infrastructure required to operate the exchange. The first risk taken was the task of scoping the data center build. If they believed in the market’s potential, they often overinvested in hardware and networking beyond what was needed at launch; a classic “build it and they will come” approach. The alternative was to build only the minimum required hardware and networking to conserve capital. The risk, ironically, was success. If the exchange took off, the infrastructure might not scale quickly enough to capture the opportunity.
When building software, two options stood before the innovator: a from-scratch exchange platform build that added on expensively licensed vended solutions of major infrastructure components (such as databases, messaging buses). Or spend years building these components in-house, substantially delaying time to market.
Thus, EP3 was designed to address these two monumental challenges faced by innovators. By leveraging open source software, EP3 offers a lower total cost to our customers than our competitors, who either have built all their applications from scratch or leveraged third-party vended solutions with their expensive license fees.
By designing EP3 to operate in the cloud and leveraging open-source containerization and orchestration technologies, we’ve diminished many of the risks associated with hardware and networking buildouts. Exchange infrastructure can now scale in line with actual growth, rather than speculative demand.
This wasn’t a recent shift – it was a deliberate design decision made over a decade ago in response to where the market was heading. As early as 2015, our first company, Connamara Systems, was helping CFTC DCM applicants build exchanges in the cloud.
Lowering the barrier to entry for innovators launching new markets has been the most positive feedback we’ve received from our diverse slate of trusted customers.
Thank you to the independent, expert advisory board that worked in collaboration with A-Team’s editorial team to select us, and congratulations to all the nominees in our category.
If a market venture is new and novel – say, in the burgeoning predictions space – there’s a good chance it will turn to Connamara Technologies and its EP3 for exchange and clearing functionality. This is the technology that Interactive Brokers’ ForecastEx subsidiary adopted, as did Railbird Exchange (which was acquired by DraftKings), BEE4 of Brazil for tokenized equities, and ElectronX for electricity derivatives.
As of January, the Austin, Texas, company said the cloud-based, asset- and industry-agnostic EP3 was powering 12 exchanges and three clearinghouses worldwide, “a diverse range of traditional and new asset classes including perpetual futures, tokenized assets, crypto, energy derivatives, sovereign bonds, sports” and more . . . Importantly, it offers true 24x7x365 trading capability, making it the optimal choice in a world where trading never stops.”
“We’re impressed by Connamara’s ability to meet our exacting requirements with EP3 and deliver customized exchange technology tailored to our self-custody model,” Randy Myers, head of product – exchange, Figure Markets, said when announcing its vendor choice last year. “As Figure Markets expands its product offerings and customer base, we expect to lean on EP3 to help accelerate our growth.”
Jim Downs, Connamara CEO and co-founder with Maureen Downs, said of Figure: “They are a team of professionals that are bridging the gap between DeFI and TradFi. We are grateful for their trust. We’ve enjoyed the challenge of working together to build this exciting new marketplace and look forward to witnessing their continued success.”
In December, Daniel Davis, whose customers included ForecastEx, Railbird and ElectronX, was promoted to chief revenue officer. Before joining Connamara in November 2022 as head of growth, Davis held development and strategy roles at PIMCO, Dimensional Fund Advisors and WorkTango.
New York, Austin, Mar. 18, 2026 – Connamara Technologies, a leading provider of custom software solutions by capital markets experts, is pleased to announce engaging Exactpro, an independent software testing and development services specialist, for third-party testing of its EP3® platform.
EP3 is a high-performance exchange and clearinghouse platform that currently powers thirteen exchanges and three clearinghouses worldwide, supporting trading across traditional and emerging asset classes. A fully-integrated end-to-end platform, EP3 offers a 24/7 operation capability and extensible customisation options to serve a wide range of new and existing fintech use cases.
By introducing an independent testing partner, Connamara aims to further strengthen EP3’s robustness, scalability, and operational resilience, ensuring the platform meets the stringent demands of modern exchanges, clearing venues and alternative trading systems. The engagement also aims to help the Texas-based, global technology operator define a baseline for the next stage of evolution of its core platform and obtain a consolidated and easily executable test library.
The engagement will see Exactpro deliver an independent testing programme covering functional and non-functional testing of the core EP3 platform across services, components, and integrations. Leveraging two decades of experience in the industry, testing high-throughput, low-latency trading systems, the Exactpro team is tasked with exercising EP3 under a set of performance scenarios and associated metrics that Connamara can benchmark against for business and regulatory compliance purposes.
James Downs, Co-Founder and CEO of Connamara, commented:‘Engaging an experienced independent specialist like Exactpro reinforces our commitment to delivering reliable and production-ready exchange technology to more industry participants and jurisdictions. As EP3 continues to expand to new markets and asset classes, rigorous third-party testing provides additional assurance to our clients and stakeholders.’
Thomas H. Toller, Managing Director, Exactpro US, added: ‘Matching engines and other market infrastructure platforms require stability, scalability and reliability to support trading and post-trade functions as market volumes grow. We are pleased to provide the team at Connamara Technologies with independent testing services to help support the next stage of the EP3 evolution. Exactpro will apply its risk-based testing methodology and AI-enabled automation frameworks to simulate realistic market conditions, stress scenarios and peak trading volumes. We will work hard to provide the information Connamara Technologies needs to evolve the platform further and serve more use cases and markets.’
About Connamara Technologies
Connamara Technologies is the company enabling the most exciting and innovative markets in the world. Its flagship product, EP3®, is a new breed of marketplace technology that seamlessly integrates all key exchange, clearing, and market surveillance functions into a single, robust platform. It is adaptable, scalable, and quick-to-market. Engineered for the evolving needs of the next generation of trading venues, EP3 is shaping the future of financial markets.
Exactpro is an independent provider of AI-enabled software testing as well as development, consulting and training services for financial organisations. Exactpro’s client network spans exchanges and exchange groups, post-trade platform operators, banks and technology vendors across 25 countries. Using deep domain and technology expertise, the Exactpro team helps some of the leading financial infrastructures globally to decrease time to market, maintain regulatory compliance, improve scalability, latency and operational resiliency. Learn more at exactpro.com or reach out to us via [email protected].
Conducted in partnership between Acuiti and Connamara Technologies
The Race to Build Prediction Markets is a report on how exchanges and trading venues are approaching one of the fastest-growing new asset classes in financial markets. Conducted in partnership with Acuiti, the research explores how firms across traditional finance, crypto, and retail trading are evaluating opportunities in prediction markets.
Based on surveys and interviews with 51 senior executives across technology, business development, operations, and management roles at exchanges and trading venues globally. Members from FCMs and the buy-side were also polled. DOWNLOAD HERE.
The research provides insights into how firms are approaching prediction markets, how they’re building the required technology, and the key market structure challenges still to be solved.
Despite the widely acknowledged importance of investment, many exchanges have not taken recent action to upgrade their technology stacks. Less than half of survey respondents had made a major upgrade to their matching engine during the past six years.
London – 05 March 2026: Almost 50% of traditional derivatives exchanges are considering launching prediction contracts, a study from Acuiti has found. READ THE FULL STUDY HERE.
The Race to Build Prediction Markets, published today, surveyed senior executives at traditional and crypto exchanges, as well as betting companies, on their plans to develop prediction markets and approaches to the technology investment required to launch.
The report finds that the number of venues offering prediction markets is set to grow significantly across the globe as firms look to develop event contracts. The range of contracts is also set to grow as venues develop locally referenced contracts.
However, while the budding market in the US today covers a broad range of underlyings from sports to politics, traditional exchanges say they will focus on financial contracts when they launch.
The paper, conducted in partnership with Connamara Technologies, also explores how exchanges and other venues are planning to build the technology required to offer prediction markets. 57% of venues plan a hybrid build strategy, combining in-house development with third-party technology. Time to market was the most important factor when evaluating external technology providers, reflecting the expectation of increasing competition in the sector.
Venues cited they would typically seek a third-party provider due to the complexity of building event contracts versus traditional instruments. 62% of respondents noted market design complexity, particularly the distinction between continuous versus event-based trading, as the leading technological challenge.
The research underscores the difficulty of adapting legacy exchange infrastructure to event-based contracts, particularly around market data, post-trade settlement, and integration with existing systems.
The key findings of the report include:
51% of all firms surveyed, including 47% of traditional exchanges, are either considering launching prediction markets or are committed to doing so
Finance-related events are the top target category for new launches, cited by 86% of respondents
57% of respondents say they will use a mix of in-house and third-party tech to build their prediction markets offering
Time to market is the most important consideration for firms considering outsourced exchange and clearing technology to develop prediction markets
Several challenges remain unresolved for exchanges and brokers entering the market, particularly in market data
“A central theme of the whitepaper is the technology challenge of launching prediction markets quickly while ensuring resilience, compliance and scalability,” said Ross Lancaster, head of research at Acuiti.
“Our research suggests that there will be a significant number of venues launching prediction markets globally over the coming years. The ones that succeed will be those that can come to market quickly with robust, institutional grade technology.”
“Acuiti’s research confirms the flexibility and competitiveness that is needed when building markets. As the leading technology provider to the world’s most exciting markets, we are committed to delivering the infrastructure innovators need to launch new venues and operate with confidence,” said Daniel Davis, Chief Revenue Officer of Connamara Technologies.
Download the full report here: https://www.acuiti.io/insights/
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About Acuiti
Acuiti is a management intelligence platform designed to provide Senior Industry Professionals in the Derivatives Industry with high-value insight into industry-wide performance and business operations. Acuiti provides a platform through which our exclusive network of Senior Industry Executives can share and source information on day-to-day operational challenges, providing them and their management teams with increased transparency and in-depth analysis to make more informed decisions and benchmark company performance. Financial Institutions benefiting from our services include Banks, Non-bank FCMs, Brokers, Proprietary Trading Firms, Hedge Funds and Asset Managers.
Connamara Technologies is the company enabling the most exciting and innovative markets in the world. Its flagship product, EP3®, is a new breed of marketplace technology that seamlessly integrates all key exchange, clearing, and market surveillance functions into a single, robust platform. It is adaptable, scalable, and quick-to-market. Engineered for the evolving needs of the next generation of trading venues, EP3 is shaping the future of financial markets.
To learn more, please visit www.connamara.tech or connect on LinkedIn
From our CRO Daniel Davis, on accepting the award: “Digital assets are becoming increasingly adopted by institutional investors, traditional banks, and regulators. Connamara Tech’s EP3 is battle-tested by institutional participants like these and offers cryptocurrency venues a way to leverage that experience while allowing exchange operators to focus on revenue-generating activities and what differentiates their marketplace from others.”
Every new exchange faces the same challenge: how do you get people to actually show up and trade? Here’s our CRO, Daniel Davis in his interview with WatersTechnology to celebrate EP3 winning Best Trading Infrastructure Initiative 2025.
