Saquon Barkley to unwind Polymarket stake as Utah charges Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour under online gaming laws

Two prediction-market stories landed in the same week: Saquon Barkley is exiting his Polymarket investment after guidance from the NFL, while Utah has filed criminal charges against Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour and COO Luana Lopes Lara. For high-risk payment players, that is the familiar combination of sports-event-contract pressure on one side and regulator pushback on the other.

1. Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley told Front Office Sports that he is divesting his investment in Polymarket. Barkley said he received guidance from the NFL to unload the undisclosed stake, adding: “I was in it before, but no bueno.”
2. The timing matters because the NFL continues to oppose proposed rules from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission on sports event contracts. Barkley said the league’s new guidance came ahead of the regular season, which suggests the NFL is not treating prediction-market exposure as a casual side bet for players, even when the company is not itself the one making the rule fight.
3. By contrast, the NBA has moved in the other direction. This week it signed a comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding with the CFTC and, in that framework for event contracts on the league, designated Kalshi and Polymarket as preferred prediction-market partners. The NBA also gained veto power to block contracts it considers objectionable.
4. Kalshi’s regulatory problems are now expanding beyond civil litigation. On 29 October, Utah Attorney General Derek Brown filed a criminal complaint naming CEO Tarek Mansour and COO Luana Lopes Lara as defendants after an undercover agent placed 12 sports trades on the platform totaling $114.87. The complaint includes 12 counts of online gaming promotion and one count of pattern of unlawful activity.
5. Brown filed the charges less than two weeks after Utah sued Kalshi, calling gambling a “public nuisance” that creates “substantial harm” to state residents. Kalshi responded through a spokesperson: “This is a crazy overreach; Utah is clearly playing politics,” adding that the company looks forward to stopping it.

Kalshi also disclosed a separate financing milestone on Thursday: a $1 billion funding round led by Sequoia Capital and Wellington Management, lifting its valuation to $40 billion. The company was valued at $22 billion in May, so the step-up is not exactly subtle.