The NBA named Kalshi and Polymarket its preferred prediction markets and signed a CFTC pact. Six days after a betting memo that skipped the exchanges, the league now has a contract with both.

Analysis · Updated October 27, 2026 · 18+ · Not legal advice · By BetG8 Editorial · Sports

NBA picks Kalshi and Polymarket as preferred prediction markets and signs a CFTC pact — Three agreements in one release: a CFTC memorandum, two preferred exchanges and an expanded DraftKings deal.

Short answer: On Monday, October 26, the NBA signed a memorandum of understanding with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, named Kalshi and Polymarket its Preferred Prediction Market Exchanges and extended its DraftKings agreement to prediction markets. The exchanges get NBA logos, US marketing rights and official league data from Sportradar to settle authorized markets. In return they accept limits on which markets they list, a ban on trading by league and team personnel, and duties to share information on suspicious trading. The stakes are already large: since the season opened on October 20, Kalshi's basketball straight-bet volume has averaged more than $100 million a day and Polymarket US's more than $35 million, according to InGame. The deal gives the league the lever it said it lacked on October 16, when its new betting restrictions reached only sportsbooks. It does not change a single state's law, and the list of restricted markets has not been published.

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Ten days ago the NBA's problem with prediction markets was that it had no contract with any of them. Its October 16 memo pulled four bet types from FanDuel, DraftKings and its other sportsbook partners, and its own executive, Scott Kaufman-Ross, conceded that enforcing anything similar on exchanges would be hard without formal agreements. We wrote on opening night that the season started with two rulebooks for the same games. Monday's release is the league's attempt to merge them, by buying its way into the exchanges' product decisions rather than waiting for the CFTC or the courts.

What the NBA announced on October 26

The league's release describes three agreements. The first is a memorandum of understanding with the CFTC focused on cooperation and information sharing. The second designates Kalshi and Polymarket as Preferred Prediction Market Exchanges. The third expands the existing DraftKings deal, which since 2021 has made it an official betting partner alongside FanDuel, to cover prediction markets and nationwide promotion. The league said it would expand relationships with other official betting partners "in the coming weeks". No financial terms or contract lengths were disclosed.

Term	Kalshi and Polymarket (preferred)	DraftKings (authorized operator)	Exchanges with no NBA deal
Use of NBA and team logos, US marketing	Yes	Covered by expanded sponsorship	No
Official data via Sportradar to settle markets	Yes	Not specified in release	No
Limits on which markets can be listed	Yes, list not published	Restrictions "aligned with" NBA betting restrictions	None from the league
League and team personnel barred from trading	Yes	Enhanced integrity obligations	Exchange's own rules only
Share information on suspicious trading	Yes	Yes	Via CFTC, which now has an NBA channel

Kaufman-Ross, the NBA's head of media distribution and partnerships, said protecting the integrity of the game was the league's top priority. Adam Barrick, Kalshi's head of sports partnerships, called the deal "a significant milestone"; Ari Borod, president of sports business development at Polymarket, spoke of "establishing a safe, transparent prediction market ecosystem for everyone."

The gap this is meant to close

The October 16 memo removed four bet types for 2026-27: parlays stacking unders on one player, opening-tip bets, bets on a player missing a specific shot, and unders on players expected to play fewer than 12 minutes. It came two days after Shane Hennen pleaded guilty in a federal fixing case built partly on under props, and it bound only licensed sportsbooks. That evening Polymarket US still listed a three-leg LeBron James under combo, and Kalshi and DraftKings Predictions had just certified new NBA player-stat templates with the CFTC.

Monday's release says every authorized operator accepts "market restrictions aligned with the NBA's latest sports betting restrictions". Read literally, that should take the four memo categories off Kalshi, Polymarket and DraftKings' exchange. The release does not list the markets, and neither exchange had published a changed catalogue by Tuesday morning, so the claim cannot yet be checked against what is actually listed. The test is simple: a same-player under combo or a sub-12-minute under on either app after this week would mean the alignment is looser than the wording.

The personnel ban is narrower than it sounds but still new. Exchanges already prohibit trading on non-public information, and Kalshi and Polymarket say they verify employment for traders in sensitive markets. What the agreement adds is a named counterparty with player and staff rosters, which is what an exchange needs to know who counts as an insider in the first place.

Why the CFTC memorandum matters more than the sponsorship

The NBA is the third league to sign an MOU with the CFTC, after Major League Baseball and the NHL earlier this year, according to The Block. The memorandum is about information, not rules: the league and the agency agree to talk and to share data on potentially suspicious trading. That matters because the CFTC, not the league, has enforcement power over a designated contract market, and until Monday it had no formal line to the people who know a team's injury report before it is filed. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said the NBA joins MLB and the NHL in the effort, InGame reported.

The league that is missing is the NFL. It has no commercial deal with any exchange and no MOU, and on October 8 it filed an amicus brief in New Jersey's Supreme Court case, No. 26-299, arguing that sports event contracts are gambling for states to regulate and asking for a 21-and-over floor. The NBA has now taken the opposite commercial route while keeping its April request to the CFTC, which asked for a ban on player props until rules were written, on the record.

The money on the table

The volume explains the timing. InGame put Kalshi's basketball straight-bet volume at an average above $100 million a day since tip-off on October 20, before counting parlays with basketball legs, and Polymarket US's at more than $35 million a day. On the offshore Polymarket exchange, the 2027 NBA champion market showed $32.4 million in volume on October 27 according to Polymarket's public API; Kalshi's equivalent market carried more than $29 million by October 19, according to Sports Illustrated. At those daily rates, the two exchanges are handling roughly $1 billion of NBA straight bets a week, which is the business the league has chosen to license rather than ignore.

What it does not settle

A sponsorship is not a licence. Kalshi's sports contracts are unavailable in Illinois, Michigan and Nevada under court orders or settlements, so Bulls and Pistons fans at home cannot use the league's preferred exchange for sports contracts at all; our 50-state tracker has the detail. Utah sued Kalshi and its market maker on October 20, Ohio has told its own licensees to cut ties with sports prediction markets by October 30, and on October 23 Kalshi sued Louisiana officials in federal court to head off enforcement, opening its first case in the Fifth Circuit. Kalshi's response to New Jersey's Supreme Court petition is due November 9, and comments on the CFTC's two swap-definition rules close November 18. None of that is affected by a logo licence.

The deal may still be cited. States argue that sports event contracts are bets; Kalshi argues they are swaps under federal oversight. A professional league choosing to route its integrity programme through the CFTC is a fact both sides will try to use.

What to watch

Three things this week and next. Whether Kalshi and Polymarket publish, or visibly apply, the restricted-market list. Whether FanDuel, Fanatics or other sportsbook partners with exchange products sign as authorized operators "in the coming weeks". And whether any other league follows; the NFL's position is set out in its Supreme Court brief and has not moved.

Method and limits

Deal terms and quotations are from the NBA's October 26 release and from InGame, The Block and Forbes reports the same day; we have not seen the contracts or the CFTC memorandum. Volume figures are InGame's, attributed there to the exchanges, and are straight bets only. The Polymarket champion-market volume was read from Polymarket's public Gamma API on October 27, 2026 and refers to the international exchange, not Polymarket US. The weekly estimate is our arithmetic from those daily averages. State availability is from our tracker as of October 27. Nothing here is legal, financial or betting advice.

Frequently asked questions

Is Kalshi an official NBA partner?

Yes. On October 26, 2026 the NBA named Kalshi and Polymarket its Preferred Prediction Market Exchanges, with rights to NBA logos and marketing in the US and official league data from Sportradar to settle authorized markets. DraftKings, already an official sportsbook partner, became an authorized prediction market operator. Financial terms were not disclosed.

What did the NBA sign with the CFTC?

A memorandum of understanding on cooperation and information sharing about suspicious trading and integrity in NBA prediction markets. The NBA is the third league to sign one, after Major League Baseball and the NHL. The NFL has not.

Do the NBA's betting restrictions now apply to Kalshi and Polymarket?

The league says its authorized operators accept market restrictions aligned with its latest sports betting restrictions, and that Kalshi and Polymarket accept limits on which markets they offer. The release does not publish the list. Six days earlier, the NBA's October 16 memo removing four bet types applied only to its sportsbook partners.

Does the NBA deal make Kalshi legal in every state?

No. A league sponsorship does not change state gambling law or court rulings. As of October 27, 2026, Kalshi's sports contracts are unavailable in Illinois, Michigan and Nevada, and states including Utah and Ohio are suing or enforcing against prediction markets.