NCAA President Appeals to CFTC for Prediction Market Oversight

The NCAA has requested that the federal regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), halt trades on college sports on January 14 until the federal agency implements stronger consumer protections.

In a formal letter to the commission's chairman, NCAA President Charlie Baker argued that the rapid expansion of these prediction market apps poses a threat to the personal safety of student-athletes and the fairness of athletic contests. Baker requested several specific safeguards, including age and advertising limits, mandatory integrity monitoring, and the prohibition of proposition wagers.

"I implore you to suspend collegiate sport prediction markets until a more robust system with appropriate safeguards is in place," Baker wrote in his letter. 

While some operators, such as Kalshi, utilize monitoring firms to flag suspicious activity, the NCAA maintains that current oversight lacks necessary tools, including bettor geolocation. Baker noted that, unlike licensed sportsbooks such as the best sports betting sites, prediction market companies do not have to share data about integrity threats with competitors through a central hub.

The request follows a period of growth for prediction market platforms, which allow users to trade contracts based on event outcomes. Because they are regulated at the federal level rather than by individual states, these markets are available to users 18 and older across all 50 states.

During a speech at the 2026 NCAA Convention, Baker described the industry as unregulated gambling on college games and called for federal intervention to stabilize the landscape.

However, the pro leagues are still in disagreement over this issue. The NFL has informed Congress of its concerns, while the NHL and the UFC partnered with large prediction companies.

NCAA pushes back at transfer portal market plan

Calls for federal regulation intensify as the NCAA balances the sport’s expansion with the threat of athlete harassment. Baker previously published a statement in December saying that the association is vehemently opposed to Kalshi's proposal regarding the transfer portal, which allows trades on whether a player will switch schools.

The college football transfer portal window runs from Jan. 2 to Jan. 16 this year, making the timing of these market proposals particularly sensitive for athletic departments.

"It is already bad enough that student-athletes face harassment and abuse for lost bets on game performance, and now Kalshi wants to offer bets on their transfer decisions and status — this is absolutely unacceptable and would place even greater pressure on student-athletes while threatening competition integrity and recruiting processes," Baker said in his statement.

Prediction markets, like Kalshi and Polymarket, operate by allowing users to take positions on binary outcomes, such as coaching hires or player movements. These trades function similarly to stocks and can be sold before an event concludes.

So far, Kalshi has yet to release the transfer portal contracts, but a company spokesperson told ESPN that the operator tends to certify markets “all the time” and ultimately does not list them.