NBA Partners With Kalshi, Polymarket, DraftKings Predictions in Major Deal

The NBA made a massive splash in the prediction market space on Monday by announcing partnerships with Kalshi, Polymarket, and DraftKings Predictions. At the same time, it signed a memorandum with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to help protect the integrity of sports for certain event contracts. The DraftKings prediction expands an existing partnership with DraftKings Sportsbook. 

“The agreement expands our ability to reach and engage eligible customers around NBA event contracts throughout the league ecosystem, complementing the continued expansion of DraftKings Predictions within our broader sports platform,” DraftKings said on X. 

With this news, the NBA joins MLB, MLS, and NHL as a professional league partnering with prediction market platforms.

"Announcing our partnership with the NBA is a significant milestone for Kalshi -- one that we're extraordinarily proud of," Kalshi's head of sports partnerships, Adam Barrick, said in a news release.

The only one left out is the NFL, and that's by choice, as it waits for more regulatory news. They've also sent a note to the Supreme Court on behalf of New Jersey, which is petitioning the Supreme Court. 

“We were really just waiting for that moment where we felt like we had all of the proper pieces in place in order for us to get comfortable to move forward,” Scott Kaufman-Ross told ESPN.

Kalshi, Polymarket Gain Official NBA Data and Branding Rights

With these deals, Polymarket and Kalshi are each given the label "Preferred Prediction Market Exchange of the NBA" and will receive official league data and IP rights to use NBA marks, logos, and more on their sites. 

"Through this partnership, we’ll integrate official NBA data, distributed by Sportradar, into the operation and settlement of authorized NBA markets on Kalshi. That connects our markets directly to the league’s official record, giving participants an authoritative source for determining outcomes," Kalshi said in a news release.

In that same release, Kalshi said these were their commitments:

• Market surveillance: Our work with IC360 helps detect suspicious activity and identify people prohibited from trading, connecting monitoring with information from sports organizations.

• Athlete and coach protection: Our partnership with Signify helps identify online abuse and threats and take action against users responsible for such conduct, including permanently closing their accounts.

NBA, CFTC Sign Agreement to Strengthen Prediction Market Integrity

On regulation, the NBA isn't taking a side. 

“We’ll let the courts decide,” Kaufman-Ross also said to ESPN. “The jurisdictional issue is not our issue. Our issue is the way that our game is impacted.”

As mentioned, the CFTC and NBA signed a memorandum. 

“The NBA joins the MLB and NHL in taking a responsible step toward protecting sports integrity and market participants from abuses in prediction markets like insider trading and fraud,” said CFTC Chairman Michael Selig in a release.