The NBA’s response to gambling scandals is to add more gambling partnerships

is a senior editor following news across tech, culture, policy, and entertainment. He joined The Verge in 2021 after several years covering news at Engadget.

From the bright minds that brought you FTX Arena and NBA Top Shot NFT maketplace (where sales last month dropped to $762,781, which is a 99.66 percent decrease compared to the February 2021 peak of $226,350,843), the NBA announced Monday that it has new “preferred” prediction market deals for Kalshi and Polymarket, as well as a memorandum of understanding with the US CFTC about how to manage the relationships. It also announced an expansion of its DraftKings deal to include prediction markets, and says that more expansions will be announced with others soon.

The NBA is already facing scandals after Jontay Porter pleaded guilty to conspiracy over a gambling and manipulation scheme in 2024, Malik Beasley is reportedly in negotiations over a plea deal on similar charges, while former player Terry Rozier and coach Chauncey Billups are under indictment on charges of allegedly rigging prop bets and participating in rigged poker games, respectively.

NBA Head of Media Distribution & Partnerships Scott Kaufman-Ross proclaims that “Protecting the integrity of the game is our top priority,” as it establishes its integrity framework for the Kalshi and Polymarket deal. Under the new arrangements, prediction markets will be able to use official league data and IP, while promising limitations on “permissible markets” and information-sharing on suspicious trades and investigations.

That last bit will probably be important, as prediction markets have already drawn insider trading activity for everything from US military activity in Venezuela to Trump’s teleprompter. Currently, New York attorney general Letitia James is just one of many state AGs suing Kalshi and the others as senators investigate reports pointing out how DraftKings and others use AI to target the gamblers who are more likely to lose, while restricting bets from those who win.

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