Kalshi gets Nov. 9 deadline in Supreme Court sports-contract dispute

Kalshi has received a 30-day extension to answer New Jersey’s petition at the U.S. Supreme Court, moving its response deadline to Nov. 9. The case, Mary Jo Flaherty and Jennifer Davenport v. KalshiEX, LLC, No. 26-299, asks whether the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act prevents states from enforcing gambling laws against sports-event contracts traded on federally designated exchanges.

As we reported Sept. 21, Kalshi had asked the court to move its deadline from Oct. 8 to Nov. 9. KuCoin reported that the extension was granted, while the court has received multiple briefs supporting New Jersey’s request that the justices take the case.

Ohio, 38 other states and the District of Columbia filed one such brief, arguing that prediction-market operators cannot remove state authority over sports wagering by describing sports bets as swaps. The states said gambling regulation has traditionally fallen within their police powers and that their systems include licensing, exclusion lists, minimum-age rules and spending limits.

The National Football League also filed in support of the petitioners. Its brief frames the dispute as whether Dodd-Frank preempted state regulation of sports bets offered on designated contract markets, and says the split among appellate courts has created uncertainty over oversight of sports wagering on those platforms.

The Third Circuit held that Kalshi’s sports contracts fall under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s exclusive jurisdiction over swaps traded on designated contract markets. The Sixth and Ninth Circuits reached the opposite conclusion, finding that the contracts did not meet the statutory definition of swaps.

The NFL said contracts tied to its games account for a substantial portion of prediction-market activity. On the first Sunday of the 2026 NFL season, it said, NFL-related contracts represented $1.8 billion of $3.3 billion in total prediction-market trading volume. The league argued that state and sportsbook rules provide integrity safeguards, including restrictions on manipulable bets, information-sharing for settlement and monitoring of insider trading.

Former Sen. Chris Dodd, former CFTC and SEC chairman Gary Gensler, 145 tribal nations and other parties also submitted briefs. Dodd and Gensler argued that Dodd-Frank did not elevate CFTC authority above state gambling laws. The NFL criticized what it called a “laissez-faire” federal approach and noted that state authorities generally set a minimum betting age of 21, while the CFTC has allowed 18-year-olds to place sports wagers on designated contract markets.