NBA announces Kalshi, Polymarket partnerships

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  David PurdumOct 26, 2026, 10:11 AM ET

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  • Joined ESPN in 2014
  • Journalist covering gambling industry since 2008

The NBA announced Monday that it is partnering with leading prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket, becoming the latest major U.S. sports league to team up with the controversial industry that opponents say blurs the line between gambling and financial trading.

The NBA said the partnerships create an integrity framework, including giving the league greater influence over the markets offered, information sharing, and a memorandum of understanding with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal regulator that oversees the prediction market industry.

Kalshi and Polymarket become the NBA's preferred prediction market platforms and receive access to official league data and intellectual property rights to use marks and logos on their sites.

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

The NBA follows the NHL and Major League Baseball, which previously entered into partnerships with Kalshi and Polymarket. NBA executive vice president Scott Kaufman-Ross told ESPN that the league held off on agreeing to any commercial partnerships in the prediction market space until they established the right regulatory framework.

"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," Kaufman-Ross said.

Ari Borod, president of sports business development at Polymarket, said in a press release that the company looks forward "to partnering with the NBA on establishing a safe, transparent prediction market ecosystem for everyone."

The NBA enters the prediction market space amid a firestorm of legal challenges against the industry over whether trading on sports falls under the jurisdiction of state gambling regulators or the federal government. New York, where the NBA is headquartered, is among the states suing prediction markets, alleging they are offering illegal sports betting.

New Jersey has referred the issue to the Supreme Court, which is expected to decide whether to take up the case in the coming months. Earlier this month, the NFL, which does not have a prediction market partner, filed a legal brief to the Supreme Court in support of New Jersey's request.

The NBA is not planning to weigh in on the potential Supreme Court case, Kaufman-Ross said.

"We'll let the courts decide," he said. "The jurisdictional issue is not our issue. Our issue is the way that our game is impacted."

Kaufman-Ross added that the league's contracts with Kalshi and Polymarket address a potential scenario where the prediction markets are no longer able to offer sports markets.

"It's certainly something we've contemplated," he said.

The NBA also expanded its agreement with DraftKings to include the company's prediction market offering. A DraftKings spokesperson told ESPN in a statement that the expanded agreement allows the company to "reach and engage eligible customers around NBA event contracts throughout the league ecosystem."