On Friday, a pair of the half-dozen entities targeted by Missouri’s attorney general with orders to halt sports event contracts initiated federal legal action. Meanwhile, Kalshi, Polymarket, Robinhood, and Underdog have opted not to initiate lawsuits.
As the cease-and-desist deadlines established by Attorney General Catherine Hanaway expired, Crypto.com’s prediction market exchange alongside Novig filed a federal lawsuit on Friday, urging judges to prevent the state from applying its sports wagering regulations to their event contracts.
Back in September, Kalshi, Polymarket, Robinhood, and Underdog received identical notices. Court records from Missouri’s Eastern and Western federal districts reviewed by The Block on Sunday indicated that none of these four entities had launched legal proceedings. These four organizations did not immediately reply when contacted by The Block for commentary.
Hanaway dispatched the notices on September 16 and 17, giving each platform a 30-day window to halt sports event contracts for Missouri residents or acquire a permit from the Missouri Gaming Commission—which has managed authorized sports gambling following voter approval in November 2024—while also submitting the state’s 10% betting levy. Furthermore, her communication with Crypto.com pointed out that the platform permits individuals as young as 18 to participate, whereas Missouri sets the legal sports gambling age at 21.
On X, Hanaway stated that businesses cannot disguise sports wagers as event contracts in order to bypass Missouri legislation.
The North American Derivatives Exchange, which is the CFTC-registered operator powering Crypto.com’s OG prediction markets platform, submitted its complaint within the Western District of Missouri. The legal filing contends that the Commodity Exchange Act grants the CFTC exclusive authority over its contracts, overriding state gambling statutes, and requests a declaratory judgment alongside a permanent injunction.
The legal document claims that Hanaway mistakenly directed her notice to Foris DAX, Inc. instead of the trading platform itself. It additionally notes that securing a sports gambling permit is impossible because Missouri’s constitution restricts direct mobile sports betting permits to just two, both of which have already been allocated.
Novig, which has previously initiated legal actions against authorities in multiple other jurisdictions, such as Wisconsin, submitted its complaint within Missouri’s Eastern District utilizing its exchange entity, Ludlow Exchange LLC. The legal action from Novig seeks both preliminary and permanent injunctions.
The prediction market platform, recognized for its collaboration with the New York Mets and its widely shared promotional video starring performer Sydney Sweeney, maintains that the court ought to issue a preliminary injunction to maintain current conditions while the 8th Circuit—which encompasses Missouri—considers a related appeal concerning a Kalshi lawsuit originating from Iowa.
Various federal appeals courts remain divided regarding whether federal regulations supersede state gambling statutes concerning sports event contracts; specifically, the 6th and 9th Circuits rendered decisions against Kalshi, whereas the 3rd Circuit supported it.
As reported by Spectrum News on October 2, Kalshi was the initial entity among the six to reply to Hanaway’s directives, with the attorney general’s department noting continuous negotiations with the enterprise. Last month, Underdog initiated litigation against Connecticut regarding a comparable regulatory push, though it has refrained from taking Missouri to court.
The Missouri attorney general’s department, Crypto.com, and Novig likewise did not immediately respond when asked for statements.
Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/regulation/2026-10-18-crypto-com-novig-sue-missouri-over-sports-event-contracts-kalshi-polymarket-robinhood-hold-off-418866.
