Major League Baseball (MLB) of America has warned players and clubs that the league’s gambling rules apply to prediction markets platforms.
The League recently signed a multi-year deal naming Polymarket its official prediction market partner, alongside a separate agreement with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to oversee integrity risks in the emerging sector.
The partnership grants Polymarket exclusive rights to use MLB branding and access official league data, as the sport moves into the fast-growing prediction markets space.
Under an ‘integrity protection’ memorandum of understanding, MLB and the CFTC will share information and coordinate oversight to prevent market manipulation and protect game integrity, particularly around sensitive in-game events.
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The move places MLB alongside other leagues exploring prediction markets even as regulatory and legal debates around the sector continue in the United States.
In May 2025, the NBA counsel wrote a letter to the CFTC requesting “specific regulatory provisions that can mitigate the associated integrity risks” of prediction markets.
The NBA warned that allowing wagers on the outcome of games without the robust safeguards required of licensed sportsbooks could jeopardize the integrity of the sport. The league called leaving the exploding market unchecked a slippery slope, noting that contracts on player injuries or officiating decisions may be imminent.
The letter came two weeks after Robinhood and its prediction market partner, Kalshi, began offering sports contracts on NBA games, with sports accounting for the majority of its trading on a average weekend compared to other markets like politics and the economy.
The NBA was not opposed to sports prediction markets, only to them operating outside the bounds of existing regulatory safeguards. The league asked the CFTC for a role in helping shape those standards should the agency permit the contracts to continue.
The league outlined key measures for regulated sports betting operators that do not exist for prediction markets:
Required approval from state regulators before launching any new betting market
Mandatory monitoring and reporting of unusual line movement and cooperation with league-led investigations
Age verification and geo-blocking technology
Ongoing communication, sharing data with leagues to identify integrity risks
Licensing protocols for sportsbooks
Tools to exclude problem gamblers
MLB would also weigh in on the topic with its letter to the CFTC echoing many of the same concerns.
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