The NCAA has written to Kalshi to ask the prediction markets company to stop implying a close relationship with the college sports governing body, noting that it is concerned about suffering reputational harm as a result.
“It has been brought to our attention that Kalshi uses the language ‘Outcome verified from NCAA’ (with a hyperlink to NCAA.COM.),” wrote NCAA SVP and Chief Legal Officer Scott Bearby in a letter sent to Kalshi on Oct. 30.
NCAA worried Kalshi’s implications will harm them
“The NCAA is concerned that this language will imply to the consuming public that the NCAA has some relationship with Kalshi which involves the NCAA ‘verifying’ or ‘approving’ data for Kalshi. Given the NCAA’s stance on sports betting, this could cause significant harm to the value and goodwill of the NCAA brand.”
Bearby asked Kalshi to amend its language to something “which clearly reflects the reality of the relationship,” such as “Outcome sourced from NCAA.COM.” The NCAA also wants Kalshi to add a disclaimer to any NCAA-related page or content to clarify that it has no affiliation with the college sports body.
A Kalshi spokesperson told SBC Americas that the company values the NCAA’s feedback and is working on adjusting the language it uses on its site related to college sports markets.
This isn’t the NHL
Kalshi does have an agreement with one sports leagues. The company and its competitor Polymarket are both official partners of the NHL via a groundbreaking deal announced in October that gives the firms the right to access official NHL data and use the league’s marks and logos on their platforms. Kalshi also has an official affiliation with NFL on FOX.
However, it also has a history of implying connections with leagues. For instance, earlier this year, it advertised pro football event contracts using NFL and NFL Players Association imagery without consent. Both the NFL and the NFLPA told Sportico that they have no business agreement with Kalshi.
About those prop bets…
Kalshi began offering event contracts on college sports markets for March Madness earlier this year and has expanded its college sports slate since.
For some pro sports, it has offered contracts that function very similarly to prop betting. Even on typical sportsbooks, props are a hugely contentious issue right now amid high-profile investigations into suspected betting violations involving MLB and NBA players, and a probe scrutinizing NCAA basketball players now implicates approximately 30 current or former athletes. The commissioners of the major pro sports leagues are apparently mulling collaborative action to try to limit or prohibit prop betting.
While the NCAA now seems prepared to allow its athletes to gamble on pro sports games, NCAA President Charlie Baker has long urged a ban on college player props, citing integrity and harassment concerns. Now, the NCAA wants to know if Kalshi intends to offer prop-style markets on college games.
“Many state legislators and gaming authorities have agreed with the NCAA’s stance that prop betting markets heighten the risk of integrity and harassment concerns,” Bearby noted. “Is Kalshi committed to forbidding similar predictive markets on their platforms (i.e. markets based on part of a competition or individual competitor as opposed to the entire team/competition)?”
Kalshi says it will address NCAA’s questions
The NCAA also asked Kalshi, which has a deal with integrity monitoring firm IC360, to confirm:
- Whether it is willing to cooperate fully with NCAA integrity or prohibited customer (e.g. coach, official, athlete) investigations, including providing timely and comprehensive responses to transaction-level data and geolocation requests, as well as what constitutes a prohibited customer under Kalshi’s guidelines?
- What proactive steps it takes to monitor collegiate sports markets for integrity concerns and prohibited customers?
- Whether it will promptly report integrity concerns and prohibited customers to the NCAA?
“Kalshi has robust market integrity provisions required by our status as a federally licensed financial exchange,” the Kalshi spokesperson added to SBC Americas. “We are currently reviewing and addressing their additional requests.”
