NFL asks Supreme Court to treat prediction markets as gambling sites
by Brad Matthews · The Washington TimesThe NFL filed a brief to the Supreme Court Thursday arguing that sports contracts offered on prediction markets constitute gambling and should be regulated as such.
The league’s request was filed in support of a petition from New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport and Division of Gaming Enforcement interim Director Mary Jo Flaherty calling for the Supreme Court to review whether the contracts fall under the purview of states or whether they should continue to be regulated by the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The NFL’s brief followed one filed Wednesday by the attorneys general of 39 states and the District of Columbia that also supported New Jersey’s petition.
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In the brief, the NFL pointed to its history of working with state regulators to create protection around sports betting, including “bans on manipulable or objectionable bets, information-sharing agreements regarding official league data for accurate bet settlement, and bet monitoring to ensure that league insiders do not trade on material nonpublic information.”
Prediction markets, the league said, claim that wagers on whether the Washington Commanders or another team will make the playoffs are swaps that fall under the aegis of the CFTC as opposed to sports bets governed by state regulators.
The NFL said the CFTC and prediction markets have not implemented the proper safeguards to keep the integrity of sports events safe. The football league stressed that current and proposed rules don’t offer ways to ask for emergency reviews or suspension of contracts if integrity has been compromised.
In its brief, the league said that “unless operators like Kalshi coordinate with sports leagues to obtain and maintain current, league-specific prohibited bettor lists, their nominal insider-trading policies or prohibitions are paper tigers — they have no practical way to prevent trading by individuals with material non-public information if they do not know who they are (e.g., league employees or medical personnel treating player injuries).”
The NFL also said the CFTC doesn’t have enough resources to monitor increasing volumes of sports event contracts on prediction markets. About $1.8 billion of the $3.3 billion traded on prediction markets on the first Sunday of this season was spent on predictions relating to the NFL, the league said.
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The CFTC said in a statement that “it’s unfortunate the NFL declined to sign an MOU [memorandum of understanding] with the CFTC which would’ve provided the league the ability to better discuss, cooperate, and exchange information with us to promote the integrity and resilience of prediction markets,” according to ESPN.
The NFL does not necessarily oppose prediction markets being regulated by the federal government. A league source told ESPN that the league would accept a federally administered framework if it matched the existing regulations upheld by state gambling authorities.
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Brad Matthews
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