PrizePicks halts Team Picks in Missouri ahead of Kalshi deadline
PrizePicks withdrew its sports prediction product from Missouri despite being left off the state's cease-and-desist list, while Kalshi pushed back publicly against the attorney general's enforcement drive.
PrizePicks has stopped taking new sports event contracts in Missouri, even though the state's attorney general, Catherine Hanaway, did not name the company when her office issued cease-and-desist letters to prediction market operators last month.
A company spokesperson confirmed to SBC Americas that PrizePicks emailed Missouri customers on Tuesday to say its Team Picks product was being suspended because of changes to the state's legal treatment of prediction markets.
Customers were told they can no longer open new Team Picks positions while in Missouri, but existing entries remain live, winning positions will be settled once the underlying market closes, and account balances can still be withdrawn at any point.
The company's other prediction offering, Culture Picks, which covers entertainment and non-sporting events rather than sports outcomes, continues to operate normally in the state, according to PrizePicks' website.
Hanaway's office sent cease-and-desist notices last month to six firms selling sports event contracts in Missouri: Crypto.com, Kalshi, Novig, Polymarket, Robinhood and Underdog. The letters argue these products amount to unlicensed sports wagering and gave the companies a month to demonstrate compliance or exit the state.
PrizePicks was not among the six, a position that likely reflects its existing regulatory footing. The Missouri Gaming Commission licensed the company as a daily fantasy sports operator in 2024, and its separate Player Picks DFS product remains active. That is the same commission Hanaway says any sports betting operator must be licensed through.
Team Picks itself does not run on a PrizePicks-operated exchange. It is offered through a subsidiary, Performance Predictions II, a registered futures commission merchant that distributes Kalshi's contracts within the PrizePicks app — making PrizePicks an intermediary rather than the exchange facing direct state pressure.
Similar withdrawals by intermediaries have occurred in other states. Robinhood agreed last month to halt new sports event contracts in Michigan, and Connecticut regulators said Gemini and Webull exited the market there following cease-and-desist action.
Kalshi has taken a more combative public stance. The company put Nicole Kagan, its Head of Research, in front of Missouri media this week, including an interview with St. Louis Public Radio in which she likened Kalshi's contracts to the futures markets farmers use to hedge crop prices.
Kagan argued Kalshi does not set odds or profit when users lose, contrasting it with traditional sportsbooks. "[A sports book's] incentive, of course, is for you to lose and to engage users on their platform that are losing over and over and over again, right? That's who they want to retain," she said. "On our platform, what we're running is a peer-to-peer exchange. So we're not the house. We're not setting pricing. And what that means is when you're coming to our platform, you're actually just matching with somebody who has an opposing opinion to you."
Hanaway's position rests heavily on age limits and tax treatment. Missouri voters legalised sports betting in 2024 with a minimum age of 21 and a 10% tax on gross gaming receipts, while prediction markets generally admit users from age 18. Her office has said five of the six companies lack adequate controls to keep under-21 Missourians off their platforms.
"Companies cannot repackage sports bets as 'event contracts' to avoid Missouri law," Hanaway said when the letters were announced, according to SBC Americas.
The broader legal question looks headed for the US Supreme Court, with federal appeals courts split on whether states or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission hold jurisdiction. The Sixth and Ninth Circuits have both found that states can enforce their gambling laws against these contracts, while the Third Circuit sided with Kalshi in a New Jersey dispute. New Jersey has asked the Supreme Court to take up the matter, as have other parties.
Ohio's gaming regulator cited the Sixth Circuit's reasoning last week when it sent cease-and-desist letters to ten prediction market companies — a ruling that drew on Kalshi's own earlier case against Ohio regulators.