DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics pulled event contracts from Utah within a week of the Kalshi charges. A federal judge sees the CFTC on November 6

Analysis · Updated November 1, 2026 · 18+ · Not legal advice · By BetG8 Editorial · Betting Industry

DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics pull event contracts from Utah — Three exchanges owned by licensed sportsbook groups stepped back. The company that was charged did not say it would.

Short answer: Within 48 hours of Utah filing criminal charges against Kalshi and its two co-founders on October 28, DraftKings Predictions and FanDuel Predicts removed sports, political and novelty contracts for Utah customers, keeping only financial and economic markets. Fanatics Markets said it will leave Utah completely on November 4. Open positions settle as normal. Separately, the CFTC and the United States asked a federal judge on October 29 to stop Utah's criminal and civil cases; Judge Robert J. Shelby has set an in-person status conference for November 6. Nothing has been decided yet.

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Utah is one of two states with no legal gambling of any kind. For most of 2026 that did not stop event contracts on sports and elections from reaching Utah residents through federally registered exchanges. The last two weeks changed that. The state attorney general sued Kalshi on October 20, the CFTC sued Utah on October 26, and on October 28 prosecutors filed criminal counts against KalshiEX, chief executive Tarek Mansour and chief operating officer Luana Lopes Lara (our report on the charges). The sportsbook-owned exchanges moved next.

Who pulled what, and when

Operator	What stopped in Utah	When	What is still offered
DraftKings Predictions	Sports, political, novelty and certain other event contracts	Late on October 28	Financial contracts
FanDuel Predicts	Sports, politics and novelty contracts	October 30, 8 a.m. local time (10 a.m. ET)	Economic benchmarks and key financial indicators
Fanatics Markets	All trade placement; full exit from the state	November 4	Nothing after that date
Kalshi	No withdrawal announced in the reports we reviewed	—	Kalshi called the charges “a crazy overreach”

The dates come from SportsBettingDime, InGame and ABC4 in Salt Lake City. DraftKings and FanDuel both said positions already open in the removed markets stay open and settle as expected, so a Utah customer holding a contract on a game this weekend is paid or not paid on the result like anyone else. They simply cannot open new ones. Fanatics took the broader route: rather than keep financial contracts, it is switching the product off in Utah, and InGame reports it stays fully operational through Election Day before the November 4 cut-off.

Political contracts are part of what DraftKings and FanDuel removed. That matters this week in particular, because Utah residents on those two apps lost access to midterm markets five days before the November 3 vote. Prices elsewhere did not depend on Utah traders; the national House and Senate markets on Kalshi and Polymarket are on our 2026 midterm election odds page.

Why the sportsbook groups moved first

The three companies that left share one trait: each belongs to a group that holds state sports betting licences elsewhere. Their prediction products sit next to regulated sportsbooks in more than twenty states, and those licences depend on suitability reviews by state regulators who talk to each other. A criminal case in one state is the kind of event a gaming commission asks about. Keeping a few thousand Utah accounts trading sports contracts is a small prize against that risk, and none of the three had built its business on Utah.

Kalshi's position is different. It holds no state sportsbook licences, its whole legal argument is that federal registration displaces state gambling law, and stepping back in Utah would undercut the case it is making in courts across the country. It responded to the charges by saying it looks forward to “putting a stop to this in court,” as it did after Arizona's criminal case, the first against the company. That is an inference about incentives, not something the companies have said, and none of the four explained its decision in detail.

Utah Attorney General Derek Brown welcomed the exits on X. “Gambling is illegal in Utah, whether you place the bet, run the game, or promote it,” he said, adding that calling a product a prediction market does not change what it is and that federal registration does not put a company above state law, according to ABC4.

What the federal government asked for

On October 29, the day after the charges, the CFTC and the United States filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction in the suit they brought against Utah and Brown on October 26. RG.org reviewed the proposed order. It would:

bar Utah from “pursuing criminal or civil enforcement actions related to event contracts listed on CFTC-regulated DCMs”;
halt further enforcement, subpoenas and other compulsory investigative process;
require Utah to dismiss the existing actions or seek stays.

The exhibits include Utah's October 20 civil complaint and the three criminal informations filed on October 28. Kalshi is not a party to the federal suit. The court's schedule is tight: Utah must be served by 5 p.m. on November 3, proof of service is due by 5 p.m. on November 4, and Judge Shelby will hold an in-person status and scheduling conference at 1 p.m. on November 6. A status conference is not a ruling; it sets the timetable for one.

The judge is the same one who ruled against Kalshi in August, when Kalshi brought its own preemption suit against Utah. The federal government is now making a similar argument with the CFTC as plaintiff. CFTC Chair Michael Selig has said the agency is prepared to take the fight to the Supreme Court and that Utah went “too far,” InGame reported. It is the agency's tenth lawsuit against a state.

What the criminal case alleges

The charges rest on an undercover operation. According to the filings as reported by SportsBettingDime, an investigator placed 12 sports event contract trades through Kalshi between September 13 and September 26, 2026, from Salt Lake and Davis counties. Each founder faces a second-degree felony count of pattern of unlawful activity, 12 counts of online gambling promotion and a further gambling promotion count. These are allegations; no one has been convicted, and Kalshi says it will fight them. The civil suit filed on October 20 is separate and seeks the fees Kalshi earned from Utah accounts, which the state has put at $30.6 million to $61.2 million.

What to watch next

November 3: service deadline on Utah, and Election Day. Fanatics remains available in the state until the next day.
November 4: Fanatics stops trade placement in Utah; proof of service due in federal court.
November 6: status conference before Judge Shelby. Watch for a briefing schedule on the restraining order and whether Utah agrees to pause anything in the meantime.
Other operators: the reports we reviewed did not say whether Polymarket, Robinhood or Crypto.com changed anything in Utah. We will update if they do.

For the wider map, the Kalshi legality tracker lists where each state stands, and the Utah page carries the full history of the state's position.

Method and limits

This article is based on company statements as reported by trade and local media, the attorney general's public comments and a review of the federal motion published by RG.org. We did not see the full supporting brief, which was not public as of October 30. Operator market lists can change without notice, and we could not confirm whether any operator geofences Utah differently on mobile and web. The motive analysis in the second section is ours. Nothing here is legal or betting advice.

Frequently asked questions

Can I still trade sports contracts on DraftKings or FanDuel in Utah?

No. DraftKings Predictions removed sports, political, novelty and certain other contracts for Utah customers on October 28, 2026, and FanDuel Predicts did the same on October 30. Both kept financial and economic contracts.

What happens to positions I already hold?

DraftKings and FanDuel both said open positions in the removed markets stay open and settle as normal.

When does Fanatics Markets leave Utah?

Fanatics said it will stop trade placement in Utah on November 4, 2026, the day after the midterm election, and leave the state entirely rather than keep financial contracts.

What is the CFTC asking the federal court to do?

In an October 29 motion, the CFTC and the United States asked Judge Robert J. Shelby for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction barring Utah from criminal or civil enforcement over event contracts listed on CFTC-registered exchanges. A status conference is set for November 6.