The NFL has renewed its commercial betting partnerships with DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics Betting and Gaming, while keeping prediction-market products outside the scope of the new agreements.
Announced Aug. 27, the multi-year deals restore a sponsorship category that had been vacant since the previous agreements expired at the end of March. The three companies receive rights to NFL trademarks, visibility at the Super Bowl and NFL Draft, and access to real-time play-by-play data, Next Gen Stats and BetVision through Genius Sports. Financial terms were not disclosed.
NFL betting partnerships focus on game integrity
All three operators agreed to follow the NFL’s core game-integrity policies. They will also work with the league “to prohibit wagers the league finds objectionable, including bets tied to officiating and injuries, along with those that can be known in advance or easily manipulated by a single person.”
Renie Anderson, the NFL’s executive vice president and chief revenue officer, said the companies “share our vision for innovation and fan engagement, but most importantly, our commitment to protecting the integrity of the game.”
The restrictions closely resemble the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s proposed rules for prediction markets. In a June 10 notice of proposed rulemaking, the CFTC said standard sports contracts, including game-winner markets, championship futures and most currently traded products, could serve the public interest.
Under the proposal, contracts involving player injuries, officiating outcomes, specific in-game actions such as a named player’s pitch or shot, physical altercations and pre-collegiate sports would be prohibited.
NFL has no immediate prediction-market plans
Asked about prediction markets, Anderson told ESPN: “That’s not a space that we’re considering right now commercially.” DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics all operate prediction-market products, but the data and intellectual-property rights included in the new NFL agreements do not cover those offerings, Front Office Sports reported.
The NFL has held discussions for months with Kalshi, Polymarket and the CFTC, but no agreement has been reached. Sources told the outlet that no prediction-market deals will be in place when the NFL season begins Sept. 9.
“I don’t see a scenario where the NFL is ready by the start of the season,” one prediction-market industry source said. “I would be incredibly shocked if anything at all happens this season.”
A source familiar with the NFL’s position told Front Office Sports that the league has been urging the CFTC to adopt rules reflecting the integrity and consumer-protection standards used in legalized sports betting. The source said the NFL is particularly concerned about injury-related markets, which it considers “easily manipulable and offensive” to players.
In July, the NFL told the CFTC that the agency’s proposal fell significantly short on integrity, consumer protection and manipulation safeguards. Anderson also told ESPN that “in order to advertise in our game, you also have to have official data, because you have to agree to our integrity requirements.”
Player availability markets draw scrutiny
Kalshi does not list a market explicitly tied to an injury, but it offers contracts on whether individual players will compete. One example involves whether Patrick Mahomes, who tore an anterior cruciate ligament in December, will play in Week 1.
Polymarket US self-certified a nearly identical product on Aug. 25 and withdrew it the next day. Both exchanges hold seats on the CFTC’s Innovation Advisory Committee, along with DraftKings chief executive Jason Robins.
Previous NFL betting deals expired in March
The NFL’s previous five-year agreements with FanDuel, DraftKings and Caesars were worth nearly $1 billion combined. They expired March 31 after negotiations with the two largest partners stalled over a proposed price increase for official streaming data distributed through Genius Sports.
Genius remains the NFL’s exclusive data-distribution partner under the new agreements and continues to provide the real-time betting-pattern monitoring used in the league’s integrity program.
Other major sports leagues have taken a different approach to prediction markets. The NHL partnered with Kalshi and Polymarket last October, while MLB reached an agreement with Polymarket in March, followed by individual clubs.
Individual NFL teams have also asked about their own arrangements. However, a source at a prediction-market company told Front Office Sports that “everybody wants a partner in this space,” while noting that team-level deals would not currently be permitted.
