The National Basketball Association and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have established rules to safeguard athletic fairness amid growing worries about insider trading and price manipulation within forecasting platforms.
As outlined in an official release from the CFTC, the agency and the NBA formalized a memorandum of understanding to exchange data and establish communication channels focused on keeping prediction markets secure while protecting overall fairness. Additionally, the basketball organization announced that both Polymarket and Kalshi will serve as its designated official prediction market platforms.
Scott Kaufman-Ross, who leads media distribution and partnerships for the NBA, remarked in a statement that as this sector evolves, constructive collaboration with operators and regulators is vital to guarantee that adequate protections are maintained. He added that these alliances mark a key milestone in building a structure that unlocks fresh avenues for supporter engagement.
With this move, the NBA becomes the third athletic association to enter into an MOU with the regulatory body. Earlier in the year, comparable accords were established by the National Hockey League alongside Major League Baseball. Conversely, the National Football League has not joined forces with the CFTC, instead urging the federal commission to implement stricter regulations regarding match fairness, user protection, and insider trading prevention.
Furthermore, the NFL disagrees with the CFTC regarding whether state or federal authorities ought to oversee prediction platforms. The question of who should supervise these billions of dollars worth of bets has emerged as a significant source of debate. While the federal agency contends that the majority of forecast contracts qualify as swaps and therefore fall under its sole regulatory authority, state officials argue that these platforms function unlawfully, breach local gambling statutes, and evade tax obligations.
This dispute could potentially reach the United States Supreme Court after New Jersey petitioned the nation’s highest judicial body to review the matter. Earlier this month, the NFL submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court asserting that sports-linked contracts constitute forms of wagering and should consequently fall under state jurisdiction.
Concerns surrounding insider trading have also surfaced repeatedly across forecasting platforms. In April, an active member of the U.S. Army faced criminal charges for leveraging non-public details to execute wagers on Polymarket prior to the apprehension of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro earlier in the year. In a separate incident, a former White House teleprompter operator agreed to a settlement exceeding $172,000 to resolve accusations that he utilized insider awareness of President Trump‘s addresses to secure financial gains on Kalshi.
Both Kalshi and Polymarket have stated that they have implemented specific defensive measures, such as enforcing mandatory employment verification protocols for participants engaging in sensitive forecasting categories to discourage insider trading.
Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/regulation/2026-10-26-nba-cftc-memorandum-of-understanding-prediction-markets-kalshi-polymarket-431764.
