NBA Signs Official Prediction Market Deals With Kalshi and Polymarket
The NBA has signed multiyear partnerships with Kalshi and Polymarket, naming both companies its Preferred Prediction Market Exchanges as the league moves to establish greater oversight of trading tied to professional basketball.
Announced on Oct. 26, the agreements provide access to NBA branding, official league statistics, and promotional opportunities. They also set restrictions on permissible markets and require reporting suspicious trading.
The NBA separately announced a cooperation agreement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and expanded its existing DraftKings partnership to include prediction markets.
"Protecting the integrity of the game is our top priority," said Scott Kaufman-Ross, the NBA's head of media distribution and partnerships.
What Kalshi and Polymarket receive
Under the agreements, both prediction market apps can use NBA intellectual property in approved marketing campaigns and promotional activities across U.S. media channels.
They will also receive official NBA data through Sportradar, the league's official data distribution partner. That information will support the operation and settlement of authorized basketball markets.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
DraftKings is participating through an expanded agreement covering prediction markets and nationwide promotion. However, it does not share Kalshi and Polymarket's preferred exchange designation.
The partnerships also do not automatically cover the WNBA. Separate agreements would be required for access to its intellectual property and commercial rights, according to Front Office Sports.
NBA restricts vulnerable trading markets
The partnerships include safeguards intended to reduce the risk of insider trading and manipulation. League and team personnel are prohibited from trading NBA event contracts, while Kalshi and Polymarket must share information concerning suspicious activity and investigations.
The NBA will also have approval rights over which markets the exchanges can offer.
The changes follow the league's recent restrictions on traditional sportsbook partners, which removed certain wagers considered particularly vulnerable to manipulation. Those include opening-tip bets, first-basket markets, unders involving players expected to receive limited minutes and parlays combining multiple statistical unders on the same player.
The NBA's prediction-market agreements will impose corresponding restrictions, addressing a gap between its existing sportsbook rules and federally regulated exchanges.
Kalshi said its partnership also establishes direct communication with the NBA on suspicious trading, investigations and athlete safety.
The exchange pointed to existing relationships with IC360 for market surveillance and Signify for detecting online threats and harassment directed at players and coaches.
NBA strengthens federal cooperation
The NBA also signed a memorandum of understanding with the CFTC, establishing regular communication and information sharing concerning basketball prediction markets.
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said the NBA joins MLB and the NHL in working with the federal regulator to address risks including insider trading and fraud.
The agreement arrives amid continuing legal disputes over prediction-market regulation. The CFTC maintains that federally regulated event contracts fall under commodities law, while several states argue that sports contracts constitute gambling and must comply with state licensing requirements.
The NFL has taken a different approach, supporting a request for Supreme Court review of the competing state and federal claims. The NBA's agreements do not resolve those legal disputes, but give the league a direct role in setting integrity requirements for its commercial prediction-market partners.
More partnerships could follow. The NBA said it intends to expand agreements with existing sportsbook partners and other companies in the coming weeks, with additional operators subject to prediction-market-specific integrity obligations.
For now, the deals establish a framework for how the NBA intends to manage its relationship with prediction markets while the industry's broader regulatory status remains contested.
