Bloomberg reports the league’s position puts it at odds with the Trump administration.
Bloomberg reports that the NFL urged the US Supreme Court to allow states to regulate prediction markets. The league’s stance puts it at odds with the Trump administration.
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The National Football League asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to hear a dispute that could determine whether states may apply their gambling laws to sports contracts offered by prediction markets.
In a brief filed in Flaherty v. KalshiEX, the league backed New Jersey regulators and argued that contracts tied to games are wagers rather than the kind of financial swaps Congress placed under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's exclusive authority. The justices have not agreed to hear the case.
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The legal divide is already visible in the federal appeals courts. The Third Circuit sided with Kalshi, while the Sixth and Ninth circuits concluded that sports-event contracts are not swaps. The NFL said the split leaves states, exchanges and sports leagues without a uniform answer about which rules apply.
The league's brief focuses on consumer protection and the risk of manipulation. It says state-regulated sportsbooks commonly bar wagers that can be influenced by a single player, coach or official, and that they operate under information-sharing and monitoring arrangements designed to flag insider activity.
The NFL wants prediction markets and the CFTC to adopt similar restrictions. It has also pushed for a minimum trading age of 21 rather than 18. The league argues that contracts involving individual plays, injuries, officiating calls or missed field goals can create particular integrity risks.
The market is no longer a niche concern. According to the NFL's filing, contracts related to its games accounted for $1.8 billion of $3.3 billion in prediction-market trading volume on the first Sunday of the season.
Kalshi says federal oversight is already active and points to its partnerships with Major League Baseball, the NHL and other sports organizations. Polymarket argues that a national framework can produce more consistent safeguards than a patchwork of state laws, according to the Associated Press.
The CFTC is also developing rules for sports event contracts. Its proposal would allow markets tied to outcomes such as final scores and season performance while prohibiting contracts on specific plays, Axios reported. The NFL says those proposed limits do not go far enough.
New Jersey's petition asks the Supreme Court to resolve whether the Commodity Exchange Act prevents states from enforcing their gambling rules against federally registered exchanges. Kalshi's response is due Nov. 9. After that, the justices will decide whether to take the case.
