NBA presses CFTC to regulate growing, unchecked sports prediction markets

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is raising concerns about the fast-growing world of prediction markets and wants some rules in place. The body contacted the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), asking it to step in with a regulatory framework for platforms that let people bet on sports event outcomes. This makes the NBA the second major professional sports league to speak up, clearly uneasy about the potential influence of platforms like Kalshi.

In a letter sent to the CFTC on Thursday (May 1), the NBA laid out its concerns about platforms like Kalshi, which let users buy contracts that function like bets on individual games and future outcomes, and do so across all 50 states. The league pointed out that while sports betting is currently legal in 38 states, these types of prediction markets are operating beyond that, raising red flags about oversight and integrity.

NEW: The NBA has sounded the alarm bell over the rapid expansion of sports prediction markets entirely through ‘self-certification’ and the absence of any ‘sports-specific’ regulatory framework that would protect the integrity of the games. Letter to the CFTC: pic.twitter.com/QM03Ufv1uU

— Daniel Wallach (@WALLACHLEGAL) May 2, 2025

Alexandra Roth, the NBA’s vice president and assistant general counsel for league governance and policy, wrote: “The NBA’s support for legalized sports betting has long been underwritten by our view that sports betting is made safer – both for our fans and for our league – when it is legal and subject to robust, sports-specific regulation.

She added: “Without oversight and regulation tailored to the specific circumstances of sports wagering, the integrity risks posed by sports prediction markets are more significant and more difficult to manage than those presented by legal, regulated sports gambling.”

Roth stated that if the CFTC allows sports event contracts to continue, the league urges the agency to “close this gap” by creating a strong regulatory and oversight system similar to what exists for state-regulated sports betting. She also stressed the need for “meaningful limitations” to curb the unchecked growth of these markets, especially as they expand through self-certification into increasingly “exotic and narrow event propositions.”

The NBA’s letter echoes many of the same concerns raised by Major League Baseball in its own message to the CFTC in March, pointing out a growing unease among major sports leagues about the rise of unregulated prediction markets.

Kalshi won a major legal battle last fall when it beat back a challenge from the CFTC in federal court, clearing the way for it to offer election betting. Since then, the platform and others like it have expanded into sports prediction markets, attracting legal pushback from state regulators in places like Nevada, New Jersey, and Maryland, all of which issued cease-and-desist orders.

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