NFL Renews Pressure On Prediction Markets

The NFL has renewed its push to get prediction market operators to drop bets it considers "objectionable," sending a follow-up letter to exchanges including Kalshi and Polymarket days before the start of its season, according to a letter obtained by ABC News.

The letter, from NFL Chief Compliance Officer Sabrina Perel, asks operators to "prohibit offering objectionable bets that threaten the integrity of our games," reiterating a position the league first set out in March. 

It comes after Kalshi and Polymarket both briefly offered markets on if or when specific players would play this season, tied largely to injury status, before pulling them - Polymarket the day after listing them, Kalshi roughly a week later. Polymarket's separate starter-designation contracts remained certified as of the letter, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filings.

Perel's letter cites the CFTC's June 2026 proposed rulemaking, which states that prediction markets should consult sports leagues before listing event contracts. CFTC Chair Michael Selig was quoted in the rulemaking saying "the leagues are very well-positioned to make those calls."

Breakdown Of Objections

The NFL grouped its objections into several categories: bets easily manipulable by a single person, such as whether a kicker misses a field goal or a quarterback's first pass is incomplete; broadcast-mention and fan-attendance bets; "inherently objectionable" markets covering player injuries, participation and safety.

It also includes officiating-related bets, such as penalty counts and replay outcomes; and markets that are "knowable in advance," such as roster decisions, trades, hirings and firings, and draft-pick bets.

"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, calling on designated contract markets (DCMs) to "take further action to remove any objectionable bets."

Just In Time For Season Opener

The league has so far avoided formal partnerships with prediction market operators even as it deepens ties with traditional regulated sportsbooks. 

The NFL last week announced a new relationship with Fanatics and renewed partnerships with FanDuel and DraftKings, saying those operators had agreed 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” - language that closely mirrors the categories set out in Perel's letter to the prediction market operators.

The letter is the NFL's second formal push this year on the issue: Perel first raised the objectionable-bets categories with prediction market operators in March, months before Kalshi and Polymarket briefly listed the player-participation contracts the league is now objecting to again. 

The renewed letter lands just a week before kickoff of the NFL's 2026 season, when betting and prediction-market volume around the league typically peaks.