NBA joins CFTC prediction markets agreement while NFL rejects the model

The National Basketball Association has signed an information-sharing agreement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and lined up Kalshi and Polymarket as its preferred exchanges. For PSPs and platforms watching regulated event contracts, the split is simple: the NBA is moving into the federal framework, while the NFL is publicly arguing that state gambling laws should control the product.

1. The NBA is now the latest U.S. professional sports league to enter a data-sharing memorandum of understanding with the CFTC, the federal derivatives regulator overseeing exchanges that list event contracts. In practice, that means the league is agreeing to work with the regulator on its involvement in prediction markets, with constraints meant to preserve betting integrity.
2. Alongside that agreement, the NBA announced partnerships with Kalshi and Polymarket as its “preferred exchanges.” Scott Kaufman-Ross, the NBA’s head of media distribution and partnerships, said the league believes it is important to “work constructively with regulators and operators” and that the partnerships are “an important step” toward a framework that creates new opportunities to engage fans.
3. The NBA is following the path already taken by Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League, both of which had secured similar arrangements with the CFTC earlier. The league now sits inside the same federal-regulatory camp as those sports, at least on the exchange and data-sharing side.
4. The NFL went the other way. It has openly rebuffed similar arrangements and sided with states arguing that their gambling laws should govern prediction markets. In a filing with the U.S. Supreme Court, the NFL said the CFTC’s oversight has been “lax and understaffed” and argued that these platforms are “not subject to the same rigorous regulatory constructs and oversight provided by state gaming authorities.”
5. The broader fight is already in court: several state governments are challenging prediction markets as gambling that should fall under state law, and three major federal court decisions have split on the issue, with two favoring the states’ argument. The Supreme Court has been asked to resolve the dispute, including by the NFL.

Mike Selig, the CFTC chairman, called the NBA’s move “a responsible step toward protecting sports,” underscoring where the federal regulator is trying to take this market: more formalized exchange relationships, more league cooperation, and fewer excuses for pretending event contracts are just another novelty product.