The NFL has renewed its push to get prediction market exchanges to drop “objectionable” bets tied to its games, sending a follow-up letter to operators on Thursday.
NFL Chief Compliance Officer Sabrina Perel sent the letter to prediction market operators including Kalshi and Polymarket, according to Sportico‘s Dan Bernstein. Both offered markets concerning if or when certain players would play this season before pulling them.
Perel reiterated the league’s stance from March that the NFL’s top priority is protecting the integrity of its games and player welfare.
“It is deeply concerning that bets within the objectionable categories that we identified months ago have been and continue to be listed as contracts on exchanges,” Perel wrote.
The letter cites the Commodity Futures Trading Commission‘s June 2026 proposed rulemaking, which says that prediction markets should consult sports leagues before listing event contracts. CFTC Chair Michael Selig was quoted, saying “the leagues are very well-positioned to make those calls.”
What the letter says
The league’s core ask is to “refrain from offering objectionable bets” across all exchanges and platforms, and broke it down in the following categories with examples for each:
- Easily manipulable by a single person (game related and non-game related)
- Will a kicker miss a field goal?
- Will a quarterback’s first pass be incomplete?
- Will a receiver’s first target be incomplete?
- Will a running back rush for fewer than X number of yards on first attempt?
- Broadcast mentions (non-gaming related)
- Fan or celebrity attendance (non-game related)
- Inherently objectionable
- Includes player injuries, when a player will compete, when a player’s next game is, and whether a player will compete in every week of the season
- Fan safety
- Player misconduct
- Officiating related
- Timing, number or types of penalties
- Officiating actions
- Replay results
- Officiating assignments
- Knowable in advance
- First play of the game
- Roster, personnel decisions (which players will start a game, what team will a player sign with)
- Who will be traded, hired or fired?
- Pick-by-pick contracts on who will be drafted
- Coaching decisions
Recent contracts offered
Kalshi and Polymarket went ahead and offered contracts the NFL didn’t want last month anyway.
Both operators self-certified markets tied to player participation, which is largely based on injury status. However, Polymarket pulled theirs a day later, and Kalshi followed suit last week.
However, Polymarket’s starter designation contracts remain certified, according to the CFTC’s filing site.
“Continuing to list these objectionable contracts threatens the underlying integrity of our games and creates significant risks for our players, coaches, and officials, as well as for those participating on your exchanges,” Perel wrote. “It is imperative that DCMs take further action to remove any objectionable bets.”
No deal for the NFL
So far, the NFL has stayed away from partnerships with prediction markets. It has, however, re-upped previous sports betting partnerships and made new ones.
The NFL announced a new relationship with Fanatics and brought back FanDuel and DraftKings as partners last week.
In the announcement, the NFL said that it will work together with those operators to “prohibit wagers the league finds objectionable, including bets tied to officiating and injuries, along with those that can be knowable in advance or easily manipulated by a single person.”
