Amid its surge into the playoffs, hockey’s top professional league has agreed to coordinate oversight of betting on popular prediction markets with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, securing a new memorandum of understanding similar to the one recently reached with Major League Baseball.
The National Hockey League, which officially signed on last year with both Kalshi and Polymarket as the league’s official prediction market partners, has agreed to share information with the regulator about event contracts tied to its games, according to a Thursday statement from the agency. The CFTC has pursued similar arrangements with all the professional sports leagues, Chairman Mike Selig said at an event last week.
“This agreement is another step toward protecting the integrity of the sport and protecting market participants in prediction markets from insider trading, fraud and other abuses,” he said of the NHL event in a statement.
Selig has made it a point to promote the industry and defend his agency’s role as its sole regulator.
Prediction market betting has seen explosive growth in recent years, and along with its popularity have come concerns that betting is being abused and encourages cheating. In a Senate Commerce Committee hearing this week, lawmakers criticized the dark side of the industry. Bad actors — including among the athletes themselves — threaten to “sow doubt in the minds of fans,” committee chairman Ted Cruz said.
“Integrity has always been and remains paramount to the NHL and fundamental to the trust our fans and partners have in our game,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement released by the CFTC. “Our agreement with the CFTC enhances the comprehensive integrity monitoring systems already in place and strengthens our ability to identify, deter and address potential risks.”
According to the new MOU, the league and the regulator “will endeavor to share information, upon request, regarding the integrity of professional hockey and the event contract markets related thereto or other matters deemed appropriate.”
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