The National Football League has asked the US Supreme Court to allow state regulation of prediction markets, putting it at odds with the Trump administration in a high-stakes legal clash. In a court filing Thursday, the NFL argued that the federal government's "laissez-faire" approach toward prediction markets could enable unscrupulous actors to trade on inside information and harm game integrity. The NFL urged the justices to take up a pending appeal by New Jersey regulators involving Kalshi Inc., marking the only major professional sports league to weigh in at the Supreme Court in the case so far.
Kalshi responded that its top priority is market integrity, noting that the CFTC's ongoing rulemaking addresses many of the NFL's concerns within a comprehensive federal enforcement system protecting trillions of dollars in US market transactions. Kalshi's chief rival, Polymarket, also said it shares the NFL's commitment to preserving game integrity and has built advanced market surveillance tools while working with regulators on a federal framework.
The key legal question centers on whether prediction-market contracts qualify as "swaps" under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which places them under the CFTC's exclusive regulatory ambit. New Jersey and the NFL contend prediction markets constitute gambling, which states have long regulated. The NFL argued that the CFTC and designated contract markets like Kalshi have resisted commonsense safeguards, including bans on certain wagers and age verification requirements.
Under normal scheduling practices, the justices could decide as soon as December whether to hear the New Jersey case in the term running through June. The case is Flaherty v. Kalshi EX, 26-299.
Source: Bloomberg Markets · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing