NBA signs Kalshi, Polymarket and CFTC into prediction markets fold
The league named Kalshi and Polymarket as preferred prediction market exchanges, signed an MOU with the CFTC and widened its DraftKings deal, following MLB and the NHL into sports trading.
The NBA has formalised its entry into prediction markets, announcing a cluster of agreements on 26 October, one week into the 2026-27 season, according to SBC Americas.
The league named Kalshi and Polymarket as "preferred prediction market exchanges," extended its existing DraftKings agreement to cover sports event contracts nationwide, and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The CFTC already holds comparable MOUs with Major League Baseball and the NHL, and clubs from both leagues have struck their own deals with prediction market operators. SBC Americas reported that the NBA expects to broaden ties with other sports betting partners, including FanDuel, and that Front Office Sports has reported Novig is expected to become an authorised prediction market partner in the coming days.
The NBA and the CFTC said the arrangement will build "a comprehensive framework for NBA-related prediction markets," focused on cooperation and information-sharing around event contracts tied to the league and its games.
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said the NBA "joins the MLB and NHL in taking a responsible step toward protecting sports integrity and market participants from abuses in prediction markets like insider trading and fraud," and thanked NBA Commissioner Adam Silver for working with the commission on the MOU.
NBA Head of Media Distribution and Partnerships Scott Kaufman-Ross said "protecting the integrity of the game is our top priority," and described the new partnerships as a step toward a framework that creates fresh ways to engage fans.
The league said Kalshi and Polymarket will apply significant integrity safeguards to NBA-related markets, including limits on which markets can be listed, bans on league and team personnel trading on NBA contracts, and obligations to share information during investigations into suspicious activity.
Those protections mirror restrictions the NBA agreed with its sportsbook partners earlier in October, which bar sportsbooks from letting users combine 'under' bets on a single player's statistics within a parlay and expand limits on markets considered vulnerable to manipulation or athlete harassment. An NBA spokesperson confirmed to SBC Americas that equivalent restrictions will apply to the league's prediction market partners.
The league's reasoning echoes that of MLB and the NHL when each struck similar arrangements. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in March that his league's agreements with the CFTC and Polymarket were "imperative steps in proactively managing" the expanding prediction markets sector. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in May that working with the CFTC, Kalshi and Polymarket strengthened the league's capacity to identify risks and gave it more say over which markets exchanges could list.
In exchange, Kalshi and Polymarket gain rights to use NBA intellectual property, including league and team names and logos, on their trading platforms, along with marketing rights and promotional activity across US media channels.
The NFL has not joined MLB, the NHL or now the NBA in striking similar arrangements with prediction market operators and the CFTC, according to SBC Americas, leaving it the lone major US league yet to formalise this kind of relationship.