The NBA Signs Kalshi, Polymarket and DraftKings as Its Prediction Market Partners

The National Basketball Association (NBA) executed multi-year commercial agreements on October 26, 2026, designating federal prediction exchanges Kalshi Inc. and Polymarket as “Preferred Prediction Market Exchanges”. Concurrently, the league expanded its relationship with DraftKings Inc. to establish the sportsbook operator as an “Authorized Prediction Market Operator,” while executing a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The dual commercial and regulatory structure reflects a strategic effort by major professional sports leagues to establish federal integrity protocols and capture commercial data licensing fees as retail event contract volume expands across federally designated contract markets.

Under the commercial agreements, Kalshi and Polymarket secure official intellectual property rights, marketing activation channels across U.S. media platforms, and direct access to real-time official league data feeds distributed by Sportradar AG. Access to official data feeds ensures that exchange contract settlement mirrors verified, low-latency game statistics.

The Integrity Strings Attached

The deals come with conditions. According to the league, the Kalshi and Polymarket agreements include “limitations on permissible markets,” a ban on league and team personnel trading NBA event contracts, and information-sharing obligations covering investigations and suspicious trading.

Scott Kaufman-Ross, the NBA’s head of media distribution and partnerships, framed it as an integrity move first. “Protecting the integrity of the game is our top priority,” he said, adding that “these partnerships represent an important step in establishing a framework that creates new opportunities to engage our fans.”

DraftKings Gets a Different Label

DraftKings, already an official NBA sportsbook partner, is not a preferred exchange. The league expanded its existing agreement to include prediction markets and nationwide promotion, and called it an Authorized Prediction Market Operator. It says every operator in that tier will carry “enhanced integrity obligations” and market restrictions aligned with its latest sports betting restrictions, and that it plans to expand its relationship with other official sports betting partners in the coming weeks. The deal follows the sportsbooks’ move into prediction markets.

A Third League Signs With the CFTC

The CFTC’s release says the two sides will share information “by regularly communicating and discussing matters relating to integrity.” CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said the NBA “joins the MLB and NHL in taking a responsible step toward protecting sports integrity and market participants from abuses in prediction markets like insider trading and fraud.”

Baseball went first. The CFTC and MLB signed their MOU on March 19, which the agency called “the first of its kind between the CFTC and a professional sports league,” and the NHL followed on May 21. MLB named Polymarket its exclusive exchange the same day it signed, and agreed to restrict markets on individual pitches, manager decisions and umpire performance.

Hockey Had the First Commercial Deal

The commercial side started on the ice. The NHL announced partnerships with both Kalshi and Polymarket in October 2025, according to CNBC. The NBA went the hockey route rather than baseball’s, signing two exchanges instead of one.

The NFL Takes the States’ Side

That leaves football as the outlier. Earlier this month the NFL filed an amicus brief with the US Supreme Court arguing that sports event contracts should be regulated by the states rather than the CFTC, in a dispute the Supreme Court has been asked to resolve. The league told the court it isn’t opposed to the markets, but wants more guardrails.

States argue that sports event contracts are sports betting and belong under their gaming laws. The exchanges and the CFTC say the contracts are swaps, a type of derivative, and fall under federal law. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has said a single national standard suits the league. “From at least the NBA standpoint, we have roughly 40 different jurisdictions regulating us right now,” he told CNBC in early October.

A League Still Cleaning Up a Betting Scandal

The ban on personnel trading lands a year after the NBA’s own betting scandal. On October 23, 2025, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn unsealed an indictment charging six defendants, including Terry Rozier, with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. The US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York said they allegedly used “non-public injury and lineup information” to place fraudulent wagers.

Those charges are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty. Kalshi said in its own posting on Monday that the staff ban reinforces its rules against insider trading and manipulation, and that it will “share integrity data, report suspicious trading, and cooperate on investigations” with the league.

A Warning Campaign Runs Alongside

The league is pairing the deals with a warning. On October 13 the NBA and WNBA announced a Responsible Gambling campaign with the National Council on Problem Gambling, launching during the 2026-27 season, to teach fans about “the risks associated with sports betting and prediction markets.”

Two weeks later, the same league signed two prediction market exchanges as preferred partners.