NBA strikes deals with Kalshi and Polymarket, with eye on integrity and regulations

MIAMI — The NBA has struck deals that will make Kalshi and Polymarket the league’s preferred prediction markets, along with an agreement with a federal agency tasked with regulating those exchanges.

Those agreements, announced Monday, are intended to provide “significant integrity protections for NBA-related markets,” including limitations on what can be offered on those exchanges, transparency when it comes to suspicious patterns by site users, and banning league and team personnel from making trades related to league events.

The prediction markets will have “information-sharing obligations relating to investigations and suspicious trading,” the NBA said. The NBA has had similar guardrails in place with its sportsbook partners for some time and has cited instances where that system has flagged irregularities in betting patterns.

“If you’re going to be betting on our games or trading on our games or playing fantasy around our games, it’s better for it to be regulated than unregulated,” said Scott Kaufman-Ross, the NBA’s head of media distribution and partnerships. “And clearly, our fans have interest in this activity. So, we’re in a better position to protect the integrity of our games in a regulated market where there’s transparency, where things can be monitored and we have insight…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business