The message from NFL executives is loud and clear: trading on sports event contracts using prediction markets is sports betting in the league’s eyes.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, NFL Chief Compliance Officer Sabrina Perel said that the league is advising all players and staff that using platforms such as Kalshi or Robinhood to trade on sports contracts is prohibited, just as typical sports wagering is.
“On the policy side, our view is that these platforms mimic sports betting and that they are covered as prohibited conduct under our policy,” Perel said. “That would be for all of our personnel. And we’re educating on this point as well, specifically stating that engaging in these platforms would be prohibited under the policy.”
Under the NFL’s gambling policy, no league employees are allowed to wager on league games, nor are they allowed to have someone else place bets for them. Players may not gamble at team facilities or and cannot play daily fantasy football either. Gambling policy trainings have become mandatory and Perel noted the league enlisted former players to help spread the message this year.
But prediction markets and their sports contracts are a new ballgame, one that sports and the gambling industry are still wrapping their heads around. The clarification on NFL policy comes as Kalshi and Robinhood recently expanded their selection of pro and amateur football contracts to include markets that closely resemble not only straight bets but also prop wagers.
Sport event contracts ‘susceptible,’ says NFL betting VP
How the NFL will monitor in practice whether or not employees are using prediction markets to trade on sports is uncertain, given that the league does not share the kind of data and integrity monitoring partnerships that it does with licensed sportsbooks.
The NFL’s VP of Sports Betting David Highhill, noted that kind of monitoring collaborations between the league, its teams, betting operators and data firms are part of the robust protections offered by the legal U.S. sports betting markets. Amid the continued wrangling over sports event contracts’ legality, Highhill said the lack of clarity around prediction markets is a problem.
“For us, the key distinction is that, for now, prediction markets lack certain regulatory requirements that we know regulated sportsbooks are subject to, like information sharing, responsible betting tools and objectionable bet prohibitions,” he said. “We’re concerned that if these markets aren’t properly regulated, they could be susceptible to manipulation or price distortion.
“So, however this comes to be through the legal channels, I think it’s really important that we take advantage of the robust framework that we’ve put in place via the legalized sports betting process, and that all leagues have the same types of protections in place.”
Highhill also confirmed that the NFL sent a letter last year to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), something other sports leagues like MLB and the NBA have also done.
Meanwhile, the execs also noted that the NFL is working with regulators, legislators and sportsbooks to try to restrict betting on markets that could be particularly susceptible to manipulation, like betting on injuries or on controllable single outcomes in a game such as field goal attempts.
