The National Football League has entered before the highest court in the land to seek classification of prediction markets as gambling apps.
The NFL has filed an amicus brief supporting the state of New Jersey and 40 other states, arguing that prediction markets like Kalshi, which provide gambling information and offer sports bets, essentially operate as gambling apps and should be regulated as such.
The emergence of prediction platforms not expressly connected to or self-identified as gambling apps, such as Kalshi and Polymarket, has opened a new frontier in the world of sports gambling, and leagues and government agencies are still coming to grips with how they should be regulated.
Proposed restrictions include a minimum age of 21 and state taxes, similar to those imposed on gambling apps.
The NFL feels compelled to act, in large part, due to the sheer amount of prediction market trading centered on football. The league claimed in its brief that on the first Sunday of the season, the NFL accounted for $1.8 billion, more than half of all prediction market trading.
“The apps are currently regulated as securities trading by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, an approach critics have described as a loophole for the companies to evade gambling taxes and penalties, as well as to allow teens as young as 18 to place sports bets,” the New York Post reports.
The NFL wants states to regulate prediction markets, mainly to better guard against insider trading.
Specifically, the league is concerned that a player could intentionally drop a pass or miss a kick, thereby affecting prediction market outcomes.
As for Kalshi, it says it has tried to work with the NFL in the past, but the league ignored it. They also contend that they already face heavy oversight.
“Kalshi’s top priority is the integrity of its markets. That priority is reflected in the fact that every other major sports league and integrity partner in the United States is partnering with Kalshi – including the MLB, NHL, and others,” a Kalshi spokesperson told The Post.
“Contrary to the NFL’s statements, the CFTC is actively policing sports-related markets, which are now listed on nearly every US commodities exchange. The CFTC’s ongoing rulemaking addresses many of the NFL’s supposed concerns. And those rules sit atop the same comprehensive system of federal enforcement that protects trillions of dollars of transactions in US markets.”
A Polymarket spokesperson issued a similar statement.
“Polymarket shares the NFL’s commitment to preserving the integrity of the game, which is why we’ve built advanced market surveillance tools and are actively collaborating with the CFTC, SEC, and other professional leagues toward a harmonized federal framework that delivers a stronger, more consistent form of integrity compared to a patchwork of disconnected state laws built for a bygone era.”
Not all sports leagues are following the NFL’s lead.
The NHL, UFC, MLS, and MLB have entered into business relationships with the prediction market sites.
The NFL, PGA, and NBA, however, have stiff-armed any involvement with the growing industry.
“We don’t feel like we have to be the first in this,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC in September. “We feel like we’re going to be right, and the best thing to do is be patient.”