The NBA on Oct. 26 designated Kalshi and Polymarket as its Preferred Prediction Market Exchanges, giving both platforms commercial access to league intellectual property, promotional opportunities and official data for authorized NBA markets. The league announced the arrangements alongside an integrity framework developed with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The designations bring prediction-market operators into formal commercial relationships with the league while placing market surveillance and restrictions at the center of the announcement. The NBA and CFTC said their memorandum of understanding is intended to support information sharing and protect market integrity, including against insider trading and fraud.
Kalshi and Polymarket gain NBA rights
Kalshi and Polymarket's agreements with the NBA cover use of league intellectual property, U.S. marketing and promotional opportunities, and access to official NBA data supplied by Sportradar for authorized markets, according to the league's announcement; the announcement did not specify which individual market categories were authorized.
NBA-CFTC memorandum addresses integrity
The NBA and the CFTC signed a memorandum of understanding to share information concerning prediction markets tied to the league. The agencies said the framework is designed to protect integrity and address risks including insider trading and fraud.
The agreement links the league's commercial partnerships to a federal-market-regulator information-sharing channel. In its Oct. 26 release, the CFTC confirmed the memorandum with the NBA and its stated integrity focus.
Trading restrictions and suspicious-activity reporting
The partnerships include limits on permissible markets and prohibit NBA league and team personnel from trading NBA event contracts, the Associated Press reported. They also require information sharing related to suspicious trading activity.
Those measures establish restrictions for participants closest to nonpublic team and league information while creating reporting obligations around trading that may warrant scrutiny. Together with the NBA-CFTC memorandum, they form the announced framework governing the league's relationship with Kalshi and Polymarket.
