The University of Tennessee is dealing with a gambling-related incident tied to one of America’s most popular prediction market platforms.
A member of Tennessee’s student broadcast team has been relieved of their duties over the use of Kalshi to trade sports event contracts during the 2025 college football season.
The incident marks a milestone in the NCAA’s approach to gambling, as it involves event contract trading rather than standard sports betting. The NCAA’s gambling rules, which recently underwent a controversial evaluation, do not explicitly provide standards for event contracts but the organization has called for enhanced consumer protections for college-based contracts.
Student traded on contracts including college football
According to Knox News, the fired student worker at Tennessee used Kalshi to trade sports event contracts for the NFL, NBA and college football, including at least one trade on the university’s football team.
The trades by the unidentified student were placed in October 2025. A month later, Tennessee was notified of the trades by monitoring service ProhiTrade. The service is powered by IC360, which partnered with Kalshi last year with a focus specifically on Kalshi’s sports event contracts.
Tennessee immediately responded to ProhiTrade’s notification of impermissible trades by suspending the student worker, who was eventually removed from their position as an in-house broadcaster. Tennessee took action against the student, but the NCAA has not levied sanctions against the university or the student who failed to follow NCAA gambling rules.
SBC Americas reached out to the NCAA for comment on the student worker’s firing.
The NCAA’s active gambling rules
The former in-house student broadcast team member used Kalshi to trade sports event contracts despite receiving training from the NCAA and Tennessee regarding sports betting.
NCAA active bylaws prohibit sports wagering by all players, coaches and team officials on events sponsored by the organization. Last year, NCAA leadership introduced a proposal to allow student-athletes and team officials to wager on professional sports, but D1 member schools voted to rescind the rule that had garnered support from administrative committees from all three NCAA divisions.
The NCAA’s protocols allow D1 schools to vote on whether to rescind approved rule changes within 30 days of their approval if a proposal does not receive at least 75% of votes from the D1 Board. The protocol allowed D1 schools to vote to maintain the NCAA’s ban on betting on events sponsored by the body.
NCAA’s stance on prediction markets
The NCAA equates sports event contract trading to gambling, requiring student-athletes and team officials to adhere to the organization’s rules regarding sports wagering.
Last month, NCAA President Charlie Baker sent a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) requesting a nationwide suspension of college sports trading for prediction markets unless stronger protections are put in place. Baker wants prediction market platforms and the NCAA to collaborate to determine what event contracts can be offered and also wants the CFTC to impose restrictions on ads at colleges for prediction markets.
The NCAA president believes sports event contracts involving colleges pose a threat to the well-being of student-athletes and can impact the integrity of competition. Baker previously called Kalshi’s self-certification of event contracts tied to the NCAA transfer portal “absolutely unacceptable.”
Other NCAA staffers penalized for gambling
The Tennessee student isn’t the only NCAA staffer to be sanctioned for gambling.
In 2024, the University of Georgia fired a football staffer for improperly placing wagers using a fantasy sports platform. The wagers were placed in 2020 but not flagged for suspicious activity until nearly four years later, despite Georgia self-reporting the bets.
Last April, the NCAA issued a two-year show-cause order to a former employee at Baylor University for placing illicit DFS wagers on both professional and amateur sports, including 113 bets on Baylor teams.
The University of Texas and Mississippi State have also had team personnel involved in impermissible wagering, with the incidents being self-reported by the institutions.
Kalshi sued Tennessee betting regulator
The latest news comes after Kalshi sued the Tennessee Sports Wagering Council (SWC) in federal court last month after receiving a cease-and-desist order from the regulator over its offering of sports event contracts. The SWC equates sports event contract trading to illegal sports wagering, leading to the call for Kalshi to pull the offerings.
In its suit, Kalshi argues that it would suffer “irreparable harm” if unable to offer sports event contracts in the Volunteer State, mirroring its claims in other courts nationwide. In addition to the SWC, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and SWC Executive Director Mary-Beth Thomas are defendants in the suit filed by Kalshi.
SBC Americas reached out to Kalshi regarding the student broadcaster and its presence in Tennessee and will update this story if a response is received
