NFL wants certain trading contracts banned from prediction markets like ‘first play of game,’ injuries

The National Football League outlined to the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission its views on how sports-related prediction markets should be regulated as the industry continues to experience massive growth, according to a letter reviewed by CNBC. 

Recommendations include banning certain event contracts and raising the age requirement for participation. 

Senior vice president for government affairs and public policy for the NFL Brendon Plack penned the letter on Friday to CFTC Chairman Michael Selig, where regulators are currently in a rulemaking process regarding the markets. Plack said the slew of recommendations are to preserve the ethics of the league. 

“These suggestions are aimed at (i) protecting the integrity of the sporting events to which the prediction contracts relate, and (ii) protecting participants in these prediction markets from fraudulent or manipulative behavior,” he wrote. 

The NFL wants a number of contracts they deem to be easily manipulable by a singular person banned, like on if a kicker will miss a field goal or a quarterback’s first pass will be incomplete. Contracts on things that are “knowable in advance” like the first play of the game or trading on “inherently objectionable” events like injuries should also be restricted, the NFL said.

Plack also wrote that the league wants “mentions” contracts for broadcasters, where participants put money on different words they think an individual will say on television, prohibited too. 

The NFL also called for raising the age requirement for participants in sports-related prediction markets to 21 years old. That would align with typical age requirements for online sports betting, but prediction markets currently allow users starting at 18 years old to trade on their platforms. 

Plack consistently refers to state-level gambling regulations as a model to follow when developing guardrails for sports-related prediction market contracts. He even recommends the National Futures Association enter agreements with state gaming regulatory authorities to share data and improve enforcement mechanisms to catch individuals who shouldn’t be allowed to trade.

However, Selig views these markets, including the sports-related ones, as different from gambling. He reiterated to Axios this week that sportsbooks and these contracts are “two separate things.” 

The CFTC has taken several states to court over their legal interventions with prediction market platforms. States argue their power to regulate sports betting means they have jurisdiction over these platforms, while the commission argues these contracts are swaps and thus fall under its regulatory power. 

Other recommendations from the NFL include a request for the CFTC to create a unique certification process for contracts that are related to an individual player’s performance or susceptible to manipulation. Currently, most event contracts are approved through a self-certification process by the prediction market platforms. 

It’s not just public sector regulators struggling with the arrival of these platforms. Sportsbook companies DraftKings and FanDuel parent Flutter have seen their stocks suffer in the past year as prediction markets’ sports business has grown.

Plack also writes the league believes prediction market platforms should enter agreements with sport governing bodies to establish and enforce a list of prohibited participants in sports event contracts, including league employees to minimize chances of insider trading. 

The league also believes platforms should be required to ban margin trading, a risky practice where borrowed money is traded, to protect consumers. “The permittance of event contracts that are not fully collateralized, as some have suggested, particularly related to sports markets, could amplify addictive behavior and loss risk,” Plack wrote. 

— CNBC’s Contessa Brewer, Jessica Golden and Ananya Chetia contributed reporting