Overview
- The NBA on Oct. 26, 2026 signed a memorandum of understanding with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and designated Kalshi and Polymarket as its preferred prediction-market exchanges to build an integrity framework.
- The agreements require the platforms to share suspicious-trading data with the league, ban league and team personnel from trading NBA event contracts, and let the NBA limit which markets the sites can offer.
- Kalshi and Polymarket gain rights to use NBA intellectual property and access official Sportradar data to operate and settle authorized NBA-related markets, while DraftKings’ agreement was expanded to cover prediction markets without the preferred label.
- The deals come as prediction markets face mounting legal challenges from multiple states, split federal court rulings, an ongoing Utah suit targeting Kalshi and a petition for Supreme Court review that the NFL has supported.
- If upheld, the NBA’s model could channel trading into CFTC-regulated platforms with league oversight; fans nationwide could see continued access to prediction markets but also tighter market limits and increased scrutiny of player endorsements and integrity risks.