From Decrypt · By Decrypt Staff
In brief
The NFL filed an amicus brief backing New Jersey's bid for Supreme Court review of a Third Circuit ruling that shielded Kalshi's sports contracts from state gambling laws.
The league said the CFTC and operators have refused its requested safeguards, including bans on easily manipulated bets and a minimum trading age of 21.
If the Court upholds the ruling, the NFL said it would push regulators and Congress for stronger protections before the 2027 season.
The NFL has picked a side in the fight over sports prediction markets, and it isn't Kalshi's.
In an amicus brief filed Thursday, the league urged the Supreme Court to take up New Jersey's appeal of a Third Circuit ruling. That ruling found Kalshi's sports event contracts are "swaps" under the CFTC's exclusive jurisdiction, shielding them from state gambling laws.
Myriad: Who wins the World Series? Click to make your prediction.
The Sixth and Ninth Circuits have ruled the opposite way, creating a split only the high court can resolve. Kalshi and prediction market rivals such as Polymarket have long faced pushback from state regulators. (Disclosure: Decrypt's parent company Dastan operates Myriad, a prediction market unavailable to U.S. residents.)
The NFL in its brief sided with the Sixth and Ninth Circuits. It argued that Dodd-Frank's definition of a swap covers instruments that hedge existing risk, not bets that create new risk, which means sports contracts belong under state gambling oversight.
The brief lays out the league's grievances in detail. The NFL said it asked the CFTC and operators like Kalshi to ban contracts that one person could easily manipulate, that involve injuries or officiating, or whose outcomes are knowable in advance, but they declined.
It noted that 18-year-olds can trade on Kalshi while most states require sports bettors to be 21, and that the CFTC has just 543 employees nationwide, suggesting the agency is understaffed to handle the task of policing these markets. Without league-specific lists of prohibited bettors, operators' "nominal insider-trading policies or prohibitions are paper tigers," the brief says.
BitcoinBTC · USD$81,802−3.34%Oct 1Oct 3Oct 5Oct 7Oct 8$86.8k$84.8k$82.8k$80.7k24h HighHigh$83,56324h LowLow$80,427VolVol$1.8BMarket projectionsOdds by MyriadTodayBelow $82,000Below $82k55% chanceThis weekBelow $82,000Below $82k53% chance→Buy Bitcoin with USDTPowered by JupiterPrice data by CoinGeckoCoinGeckoMore Bitcoin news and projections →NFL-related contracts accounted for $1.8 billion of the $3.3 billion traded across prediction markets on the season's first Sunday, according to the brief. The league, represented by former U.S. Attorney General William Barr, wants a ruling before the 2027 season.