Gambling

The NFL Chooses States, Not the CFTC, in Fight Over Prediction Market Regulation

The league's amicus brief warns about game integrity and underage betting, but the NFL has a financial stake in keeping prediction markets under state control.

Tosin Akintola | 10.8.2026 5:45 PM

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(Illustration: Sean Pavone/Les Cunliffe/Mtsaride/Dreamstime/Fatima Ruiz.)

On Thursday, the NFL filed an amicus brief supporting New Jersey's cert petition against Kalshi, asking the Supreme Court to clarify whether the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has exclusive jurisdiction to regulate sports wagering on prediction markets.

The NFL's brief states the league is worried about "increasing consumer harm and risk to game integrity" caused by sports wagering on prediction markets. It accuses the CFTC and platforms like Kalshi of taking a "laissez-faire approach" to adopting safeguards and rules. 

In its brief, the NFL points to platforms such as Kalshi for being unwilling to adopt the league's list of prohibited wagers to guard against market manipulation and insider trading and requiring anyone wagering on sports to be at least 21 years old. The NFL also argues that the CFTC doesn't have "adequate staff engaged in oversight and enforcement" because the agency has only 543 employees, compared with the "hundreds of employees covering each state's gambling industry."

"I think the NFL is saying that they want prediction markets in the same regulatory boat as traditional sports betting to, I would guess, be able to partner with them as the NHL and Major League Baseball have already done," says Andrew Brandt, executive director at Villanova University's Moorad Center for Sports Law.

Unlike its counterparts in MLB, the NHL, and MLS, the NFL has so far resisted partnering with prediction markets.........

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