NFL prohibits players from ownership interest in prediction markets companies

The news that NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo has become a shareholder in prediction-markets mega-company Kalshi raises an obvious question: Could NFL players do the same thing?

And the answer is no.

“NFL players may not own a stake,” chief NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said via email to PFT.

The fact that Antetokounmpo holds a piece of Kalshi obviously don’t remove the guardrails that apply to all players. As a Kalshi spokesperson told PFT, the company bans players from trading on prediction markets (i.e., betting) on topics involving their sport. That still applies to Antetokounmpo, despite his new status as a shareholder.

Like sportsbooks, Kalshi uses the IC360 system to determine whether users have connections to the broader world of sports.

Of course, those protections already apply to NFL players. The question of becoming a shareholder is separate from that. NBA players can, NFL players cannot.