NBA gives Kalshi and Polymarket formal prediction-market roles

The NBA has named Kalshi and Polymarket its Preferred Prediction Market Exchanges in multiyear agreements that give the league a formal role in policing which basketball-related contracts are offered. The platforms will gain rights to NBA intellectual property, promotional opportunities across U.S. media and official data from Sportradar to operate and settle authorised markets.

The league also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for cooperation and information-sharing on NBA prediction markets. The agreements were announced Oct. 26, alongside an expanded deal with DraftKings that includes its prediction-market offering.

The framework bars NBA players and team and league personnel from trading NBA event contracts. Kalshi and Polymarket must share information about suspicious trading and investigations, while the NBA has the unilateral right to approve or reject market types, according to The Athletic.

Restrictions already used by the league’s sportsbook partners will extend to prediction markets. They cover certain player single-play and negative-outcome bets, markets such as the opening tip or first statistic of a game, unders involving players expected to play fewer than 12 minutes, and long-shot parlays.

The NBA had delayed commercial prediction-market partnerships until it believed appropriate protections were in place, ESPN reported. Scott Kaufman-Ross, the NBA’s head of media distribution and partnerships, said the ability to approve markets was “very important” and that limiting market types was a major part of the arrangement.

Earlier this month, as we reported, Commissioner Adam Silver said the NBA wanted access to prediction-market data and greater control over the contracts offered on its games. The league has faced recent betting-integrity controversies: it banned Jontay Porter for life in April 2024 after finding that he had tipped off bettors, wagered on NBA games and underperformed for betting purposes.

The partnership arrives amid unresolved jurisdictional disputes. States contend that sports-related event contracts are illegal betting, while the platforms and the CFTC maintain they are federally regulated swaps. New York is among the states challenging the products, according to ESPN.

The NBA follows the NHL, which named Kalshi and Polymarket as partners in October 2025, and MLB, which made Polymarket its exclusive prediction-market exchange partner and signed a CFTC integrity agreement in March. The NBA said it plans to extend its prediction-market relationships to other official sports-betting partners and industry participants.