{"id":942266,"date":"2026-10-27T03:22:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T03:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/942266\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T03:22:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T03:22:27","slug":"nba-inks-deal-with-kalshi-and-polymarket-citing-safeguards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/942266\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA inks deal with Kalshi and Polymarket, citing safeguards"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n The NBA on Monday announced commercial partnerships with Kalshi and Polymarket that the basketball league said will help safeguard against illegal activity on the wildly popular online prediction markets.<\/p>\n

Kalshi and Polymarket will be officially designated the league’s “preferred prediction market exchanges,” and will be able to use NBA marketing materials for their promotions.<\/p>\n

In return, the deal gives the NBA control over what specific trades the websites can offer, and obliges the companies to share information “relating to investigations and suspicious trading.”<\/p>\n

It comes as prediction markets have exploded in popularity, benefiting from looser regulations that allow them currently to operate nationwide.<\/p>\n

They are technically distinct from traditional sports betting, as there is no central sportsbook that sets odds. Instead, users place monetary wagers directly against one another via online exchanges.<\/p>\n

Some states have questioned the difference. New York attorney general Letitia James this summer sued Kalshi, accusing it of running an illegal gambling operation.<\/p>\n

Individual NBA stars including four-time NBA champion LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo already have endorsement deals with Polymarket and Kalshi respectively.<\/p>\n

Victor Wembanyama has been an outspoken critic, calling it “very sad to see some players promoting” sports gambling.<\/p>\n

The NBA has been hit by multiple illegal gambling scandals in recent years.<\/p>\n

In October 2025, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was among those arrested in a far-ranging FBI probe into illegal gambling.<\/p>\n

Rozier, who has denied wrongdoing, was accused of providing inside information on injuries and game absences to bettors. He allegedly told co-conspirators he would exit early with a supposed injury from a March 2023 game when he was with the Charlotte Hornets.<\/p>\n

This June, former Milwaukee Bucks player Malik Beasley was indicted on illegal gambling charges. In one example, Beasley is alleged to have informed a former teammate that he intended to underperform with respect to rebounding in a game.<\/p>\n

Under the new deal, the NBA would be able to prevent markets that are especially susceptible to manipulation.<\/p>\n

“Protecting the integrity of the game is our top priority,” Scott Kaufman-Ross, NBA head of media distribution and partnerships, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“As this category develops, we believe it is important to work constructively with regulators and operators to help ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place.”<\/p>\n

The deal includes explicit prohibitions against league and team personnel trading on NBA-related markets.<\/p>\n

The NBA also expanded its existing agreement with sportsbook partner DraftKings to include prediction markets.<\/p>\n

Prediction markets have drawn broader controversy over allegations that insiders have used privileged information to make fortunes wagering on politics and even war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA on Monday announced commercial partnerships with Kalshi and Polymarket that the basketball league said will help…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":942267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-942266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=942266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}