TechFlow News, March 31: According to The Block, the National Football League (NFL) recently sent letters to prediction market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket, demanding they cease offering contracts susceptible to manipulation or with predetermined outcomes. These include contracts tied to single-game events (e.g., whether a quarterback’s first pass is incomplete, whether a kicker misses a field goal), draft and roster decisions, broadcast mentions of celebrity attendance, as well as field-goal and player-injury-related contracts.
Michael Selig, Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), promptly stated that regulators would “fully respect the judgment of sports leagues” when assessing the risk of contract manipulation. Meanwhile, bipartisan lawmakers have introduced draft legislation seeking to prohibit federally regulated prediction markets from offering sports-related contracts, and several states are challenging the legality of such platforms through judicial proceedings. In contrast, Major League Baseball (MLB) has opted for a more collaborative regulatory approach—partnering with Polymarket and signing an information-sharing agreement with the CFTC.
