Prediction Markets Enter NBA Spotlight as League Signals Growing Interest
Prediction markets had been a sizzling subject throughout NBA All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles, as league officers, gamers, and betting-industry stakeholders grappled with the rising position of occasion contract buying and selling in sports activities. The timing coincides with Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo’s not too long ago introduced funding in prediction change Kalshi, a transfer that has intensified dialogue about how skilled sports activities leagues may interact with the fast-growing sector.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, chatting with reporters throughout All-Star Weekend media availability Saturday, signaled each warning and elevated consideration from the league. Silver mentioned prediction markets are “a problem that I’m paying huge quantity of consideration to.”
“We presently are taking a look at prediction markets primarily in the identical means that we’re taking a look at sports activities betting markets or sports activities betting corporations,” the commissioner mentioned, as reported by the Sports Business Journal.
The remark suggests a considerably extra open tone in contrast with the league’s earlier posture, which centered closely on integrity and regulatory issues tied to occasion contract buying and selling. In a 2025 letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), NBA officers warned that sports activities prediction markets might pose integrity dangers to skilled sports activities and urged stronger oversight, framing the merchandise as carefully aligned with conventional betting whereas stopping wanting outright opposition.
Prediction markets had been additionally a part of the dialog behind the scenes throughout NBA All-Star Weekend, the place Kalshi executives Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara joined Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan in an off-the-record panel dialogue about occasion contract buying and selling on the NBA’s annual tech summit alongside main betting {industry} stakeholders.
Giannis funding brings prediction markets into NBA highlight
Antetokounmpo’s connection to prediction markets turned public not too long ago, when Kalshi announced on Feb. 6 that the Bucks star, by means of his funding and business-holding firm Ante, Inc., had joined the regulated change as a shareholder. The firm mentioned the partnership would come with appearances at reside occasions and advertising and marketing initiatives, whereas noting that Antetokounmpo will likely be barred from buying and selling markets tied to the NBA below the platform’s insider buying and selling guidelines.
Antetokounmpo posted on X concerning the funding, writing, “The web is stuffed with opinions. I made a decision it was time to make a few of my very own.”
Kalshi’s Mansour framed the deal as a long-term model alignment moderately than a purely monetary funding.
“Giannis is a legend,” the CEO and cofounder mentioned within the information launch. “He’s precisely the kind of long-term accomplice we need to align our rising model with, and we couldn’t be happier he’s on board.”
Antetokounmpo just isn’t the primary NBA participant tied to the platform. In October 2025, Mansour mentioned in a post on X that Kevin Durant can also be an investor in Kalshi, making him the one different lively NBA participant publicly linked to a prediction change.
League guidelines permit funding however integrity questions persist
Silver downplayed issues about Antetokounmpo’s funding in his feedback throughout NBA All-Star Weekend, stressing that the stake falls nicely inside league guidelines.
“In the case of Giannis, from what I perceive, it’s a minuscule funding, a lot smaller than 1%,” Silver mentioned, referring to limits within the NBA’s collectively-bargained coverage permitting gamers to carry small stakes in gambling-related corporations. He added that the league is making use of the identical guidelines for prediction market platform investments.
That permissive posture towards participant investments stems from the NBA’s 2023 collective bargaining agreement, which permits gamers to personal restricted, non-controlling stakes in sports activities betting or associated corporations offered they don’t take part in markets tied on to NBA outcomes.
News of Antetokounmpo’s funding has drawn a blended response on social media and within the press. In an ESPN opinion column, author Dan Wetzel argued prediction markets are “the very last thing skilled sports activities leagues want” and warned that athlete possession might grow to be extra frequent. The column framed Antetokounmpo’s involvement as probably problematic from an optics standpoint, suggesting monetary ties between lively gamers and betting-adjacent corporations might elevate integrity questions even when league guidelines are adopted.
Silver indicated his larger concern extends past any particular person funding or platform to the speedy enlargement of betting tied to the NBA worldwide. He famous that legalized wagering on NBA video games now exists in dozens of jurisdictions within the United States and roughly 80 nations globally, describing the “totality of all this betting” as one thing the league continues to observe, according to Front Office Sports.
Other sports activities leagues already shifting into prediction markets
While the NBA has emphasised monitoring and regulatory readability, a number of different main sports activities organizations have already begun experimenting with direct partnerships. The NHL turned the first major U.S. league to strike multiyear agreements with prime prediction platforms Kalshi and Polymarket in 2025, giving the businesses entry to official league information, advertising and marketing visibility, and the flexibility to make use of NHL branding.
Major League Soccer adopted extra not too long ago, naming Polymarket its official and exclusive prediction market partner in a deal that features integration throughout league occasions such as the MLS All-Star Game, MLS Cup, and the Leagues Cup, with plans for fan-engagement content material tied to market odds.
The UFC has additionally moved immediately into the prediction market house. Its multiyear partnership with Polymarket made the platform the combat league’s unique prediction market accomplice final yr, in a deal that features integration of real-time market odds into match broadcasts.
MLB, NFL sign gradual shift on prediction markets after early warning
Like the NBA, each Major League Baseball and the NFL have approached prediction markets cautiously, emphasizing integrity and regulatory issues over industrial potential.
MLB has expressed integrity points round sports activities occasion contract buying and selling to federal regulators and warned players that league playing guidelines apply to prediction markets. The NFL has voiced related issues, submitting written feedback to Congress saying it’s “notably troubled” by the rise of sports activities prediction markets and warning that contracts tied to sport outcomes might pose integrity dangers in the event that they broaden exterior conventional sportsbook regulatory safeguards, according to ESPN.
More not too long ago, nonetheless, there are indicators that these stances could also be evolving.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred mentioned earlier this month that the league is contemplating potential enterprise relationships with prediction platforms, a notable shift from its prior messaging. The feedback recommend the league is more and more weighing potential industrial and data-related advantages alongside compliance issues as occasion contract platforms achieve visibility.
The NFL had been guarded in public feedback about prediction markets, however current feedback recommend a considerably extra measured stance. NFL govt vice chairman Jeff Miller told Front Office Sports that he views the sector as “modern” and “dynamic,” whereas stressing the league is watching how regulation develops earlier than deciding the right way to interact.
Taken along with partnerships already introduced by the NHL, MLS, and the UFC, the trajectory suggests prediction markets are more and more turning into a extra normalized a part of the sports activities betting panorama. Greater league engagement might present prediction platforms with added legitimacy, information entry, and broader mainstream publicity as the class continues to develop.
Future of sports activities occasion contracts stays unsure
Even as professional sports activities leagues discover prediction market partnerships, the regulatory outlook for sports activities occasion contracts stays unsettled. Several states have questioned whether or not federally regulated prediction markets fall exterior conventional sports activities betting frameworks, elevating jurisdictional conflicts between federal oversight and state playing authorities. Those tensions have created uncertainty for leagues and operators about how broadly the merchandise can broaden.
That uncertainty, and any eventual decision, will finally form how deeply sports activities organizations interact. League officers have more and more recommended that the way forward for prediction markets tied to sports activities outcomes will rely much less on league coverage than on regulatory clarity rising from courts, lawmakers, and federal businesses.
Silver made that time immediately throughout All-Star Weekend discussions, saying, “Whether prediction markets are allowed to go ahead within the kind they’re in now will, I believe, be finally a problem for the courts and for Congress.”
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