Key Takeaways:
Participant unions for the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and MLS collectively requested the CFTC to ban “unfavorable end result” and “point out” occasion contracts. The NHL has information partnerships with each Polymarket and Kalshi, and Polymarket is MLB’s unique prediction-market associate. The CFTC acquired over 1,500 public feedback earlier than its rulemaking enter window closed on April 30.
Participant Associations Throughout 5 Main US Sports activities Leagues File Joint Remark
The joint remark, filed on April 30 (the ultimate day of the window) by participant associations representing the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and MLS by the lobbying agency Elevate Authorities Affairs, urged the CFTC to ban contracts based mostly on a “unfavorable” end result that may be manipulated by a single particular person, together with bets on whether or not an athlete is injured or penalized. The unions additionally requested for a ban on “point out contracts” tied as to if particular phrases like “concussion” are spoken throughout stay broadcasts, calling them “simply one other method of betting on a unfavorable end result.”
The unions argued that prop bets on particular person athlete efficiency expose gamers and their households to harassment from disgruntled bettors, citing a New York Instances survey revealed in The Athletic from November 2025, which reported that 78% {of professional} baseball gamers mentioned legalized sports activities betting had modified how followers deal with them. “People focusing on our members don’t distinguish between state-regulated wagers and contracts supplied on prediction markets,” the unions wrote. “From their standpoint, a guess is a guess no matter the place it’s positioned.” The Athletic piece additionally consists of somber testimonies from gamers of the NHL, the NFL, and the NBA, although it’s value noting that it doesn’t in any method point out prediction markets throughout the piece.
The NHL final yr turned the primary US professional league to enter the prediction-market house, signing multi-year information partnerships with each Polymarket and Kalshi. MLB has Polymarket as its unique prediction-market associate below a multi-year settlement and has signed a memorandum of understanding with the CFTC on data-sharing. The MLS and UFC have additionally entered advertising partnerships with prediction-market operators.
The NBA, which has not signed an analogous partnership, filed its personal letter calling for participant prop markets to be “prohibited within the close to time period, pending the event of applicable and smart restrictions to mitigate integrity dangers.” The PGA Tour, ATP Tour, and MLB additionally filed feedback asking the company to observe vulnerable markets. Spillane’s NBA letter additional known as for elevating the minimal buying and selling age to 21, in step with the authorized sports activities betting age in most US states.
The CFTC closed its 45-day rulemaking enter window on April 30 with over 1,500 public feedback acquired. Chair Michael Selig defended the company’s posture in response to a Wall Road Journal editorial in a letter to the editor revealed Might 1, writing that the CFTC holds “unique authority over prediction markets” below the Commodity Alternate Act and warning that restrictive rulemaking would push exercise offshore.
Selig has repeatedly framed exchanges as self-regulatory organizations accountable for policing their very own markets, on the time when Toronto Raptors ahead Jontay Porter was banned for all times in April 2024 for sharing confidential info with bettors who had wagered he would underperform statistical “below” traces. Former Miami Warmth guard Terry Rozier was arrested in October 2025 as a part of a federal investigation into prop-bet manipulation, with prosecutors anticipated to file extra fees by mid-Might.
