The NHL has entered into a memorandum of understanding to work with federal regulators on the oversight of sports prediction markets, agreeing to share information in an effort to police what has emerged as a popular form of sports betting in states that have not legalized it.
The agreement with the Commody Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) largely mirrors one MLB signed with it in March. Though not binding, it sets parameters for the CFTC and the league to “discuss, cooperate and exchange information concerning issues of common interest, such as the integrity of professional hockey and the event contracts related thereto.”
That includes monitoring for insider trading and identifying and restricting easily manipulated markets on apps such as Kalshi, Polymarket and the flood of widely used U.S. sportsbook and self-described “picks” apps that now also offer prediction contracts.
“From the beginning, we’ve always believed in the viability of the prediction markets, in large part because they are federally regulated,” said Keith Wachtel, president of business at the NHL. “That was always something that gave us comfort. We believe we are better off being part of the system than not. We wanted to demonstrate and show that we are aligned with the CFTC in doing everything we can to deepen the effort to protect the game and our fans.”
CFTC Chair Michael Selig was not available for comment. But in an interview before signing the MOU with MLB, Selig explained the commission’s desire to collaborate on integrity safeguards with the leagues.
“We need to understand and work together with the leagues to know what can potentially be easily manipulated on the field,” Selig said. “We don’t necessarily have all that information from our background as a derivatives regulator. But we’re going to get it by working together with the league and getting this right.”
The NHL became the first of the major U.S. sports properties to strike sponsorship deals connected to the controversial product in October, when it signed Kalshi and Polymarket as its “official prediction markets,” putting the companies’ logos on ice during national telecasts and allowing them to use team and league marks on their apps.
The exchange operators agreed to integrity provisions that mirror those the league requires of its roster of approved sportsbooks, including working with NHL official data distributor Sportradar and suspicious bet detector IC360. Like sportsbooks holding NHL authorized operator designations, Kalshi and Polymarket agreed to give the league input on which markets it offers.
A recent report from leading gambling research firm Eilers & Krejcik estimated that Kalshi recorded $1.3B in volume on NHL markets in the 12 months prior to May, making up 2.8% of its U.S. sports volume, slightly behind baseball’s 3.2%. Prediction market volume and sportsbook handle are not comparable measures.
“It has gone very well and I’m not surprised,” Wachtel said. “We have two great partners that have listened. We haven’t heard from either of them [that they] wish we could be placing markets x, y and z. We have not had to shut down any markets because they went rogue. They are trying to be as legitimate as they can in the sports area and we’re very supportive of that.”
