In December 2025, the NFL expressed concerns about prediction markets. Less than two months later, the league was singing a different tune.
Because there’s plenty of money to be made from the burgeoning alternative to sports betting.
Case in point: Via Bill King of Sports Business Journal, Major League Baseball has struck a deal with one of the two leading prediction-market platforms.
MLB announced on Thursday a “memo of understanding” to work with federal regulators — along with an agreement to make Polymarket “the exclusive prediction market exchange of the league.”
It’s just a matter of time before the NFL follows suit, possibly by striking “exclusive deals” with both Polymarket and Kalshi (making the deals not particularly exclusive but it sounds good and pays better). Indeed, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Thursday that the agency is currently working with other leagues.
The goal will be to minimize insider trading and/or manipulation of the prediction markets. But there’s still a significant risk to the integrity of the game and the integrity of the bets made on the games through any form of legalized gambling.
Scandals are inevitable. Until they happen, however, there’s plenty more free money to be made.
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