The National Football League has urged the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to impose tougher safeguards on sports prediction markets, pressing for a 21-and-over age limit, tighter advertising standards, explicit insider-trading rules and longer federal review of new contracts.
In a July 27 letter responding to the CFTC’s proposed rulemaking, the NFL argued that the agency’s framework should do more to protect consumers and prevent markets from creating risks for the integrity of professional games. The league’s recommendations target some of the products prediction platforms have sought to offer, including markets linked to sports awards and game-related outcomes.
The filing also challenges a proposed 10-day pre-approval process for event contracts. The NFL said that period is too short for meaningful scrutiny and could allow contracts to remain listed before the CFTC has completed a deeper assessment of their risks.
The league’s intervention places a major U.S. sports organization directly into the federal debate over whether and how regulated prediction markets can offer contracts tied to athletic events. The CFTC has been moving toward a more defined federal framework after withdrawing a 2024 proposal that would have prohibited sports and political event contracts.
nfl seeks limits on sensitive sports contracts
The NFL asked the CFTC to revise its approach to contracts connected to events that cannot be separated from gaming activity. It also called for restrictions on markets involving outcomes that could be manipulated or shaped by a single person, depend substantially on an official’s discretionary decision, or become known before a game or event is completed.
Those categories could reach beyond straightforward questions about which team wins. Markets tied to player behavior, officiating decisions, injuries, disciplinary matters or other narrowly defined in-game events can create different integrity concerns from a contract based on a final result. A person with influence over a limited event may have more ability to affect its outcome than the result of an entire game.
The league cited contracts such as “Offensive Player of the Year” in its concerns. The CFTC has been moving to allow such markets on the view that the result is determined by a voting panel. The NFL’s position suggests that a vote-based outcome does not automatically remove the sport-integrity and consumer-protection issues that the league sees in sports-related contracts.
Awards markets can also raise questions about the information available to people inside a league, team or voting process. The NFL asked the CFTC to adopt clear rules covering the use of material non-public information, rather than relying primarily on trading platforms to design and enforce their own controls.
prohibited-bettor lists and age rules
The NFL recommended mandatory, league-specific prohibited-bettor lists. Such lists would identify people who should be barred from trading particular contracts because of their access to confidential information or their proximity to an event’s outcome.
That approach would give federal rules a more direct connection to league integrity policies. Sports leagues commonly restrict betting by players, coaches, officials and other personnel, but prediction-market platforms operate under a separate regulatory structure from traditional sportsbooks. The NFL is seeking rules that would require platforms to incorporate league restrictions rather than treating them as voluntary compliance measures.
The filing also repeated the league’s earlier call for a ban on margin trading and a minimum user age of 21. Margin trading allows a customer to take a position using borrowed funds, increasing potential gains and losses. The NFL’s request would prevent sports-event traders from using leverage while also aligning access with the age threshold commonly used for regulated sports wagering in many U.S. states.
Advertising restrictions were another part of the league’s request. The letter did not frame the issue solely as one of financial-market disclosure; it linked promotion, access rules and contract design to consumer protection and sports integrity.
cftc’s changing approach to event contracts
The CFTC has been reworking its position on prediction markets after withdrawing its 2024 proposal to ban contracts involving sports and political events. The agency has continued to argue in legal disputes with states that it holds exclusive federal jurisdiction over event contracts offered under the Commodity Exchange Act.
That position has created tension with state gambling regulators and with sports leagues seeking a stronger role in setting limits around markets connected to their competitions. Prediction platforms generally describe their products as derivatives contracts, in which users trade on the likelihood of a defined outcome rather than place a conventional sportsbook wager.
The legal distinction has substantial practical consequences. If a contract falls within the CFTC’s authority, its treatment may not be governed by the state-by-state licensing, taxation and consumer-protection systems that apply to sportsbooks. The NFL’s letter seeks to ensure that federal regulation includes protections tailored to sports, rather than relying on a general framework designed for event contracts across many categories.
Michael Selig, identified as a 2025 appointee of President Donald Trump, is serving as CFTC chair during the rulemaking process. The agency has not been described in the supplied material as having adopted the NFL’s recommendations.
a fight over who sets the rules
The NFL’s requests reflect a narrower but consequential dispute over the design of federally regulated sports prediction products. The league is not simply asking the CFTC to police fraudulent trading after contracts are listed. It wants the regulator to screen certain categories before they reach the market, impose participation limits, and require platforms to use controls drawn from professional sports integrity systems.
A longer review period could give the CFTC more time to evaluate whether a proposed contract can be influenced by insiders, game participants or officials. It could also slow the rapid listing of novel sports markets, particularly products built around individual performances or subjective decisions.
The CFTC’s eventual rules will determine whether prediction platforms can expand into sports through broad event-based contracts or face tighter limits resembling the safeguards sought by leagues. The NFL has made clear that, in its view, federal oversight should place game integrity and consumer restrictions alongside the agency’s derivatives-market mandate.
Curious how regulation could reshape prediction markets? Learn what’s ahead in 2026 in this prediction markets outlook.
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