On August 27, the National Football League announced commercial agreements with DraftKings, FanDuel, and Fanatics Betting and Gaming, thereby reinstating a sponsorship category that had remained vacant since the end of March. All three companies signed multi-year deals, granting rights to use league branding, presence at the Super Bowl and the NFL Draft, as well as access to in-game live data feeds, Next Gen Stats, and BetVision via Genius Sports. Financial terms were not disclosed.
All three partners agreed to abide by the league's core integrity rules and to jointly work to 'prohibit bets that the league deems unacceptable, including those related to officiating and injuries, as well as those whose outcome may be known in advance or easily manipulated by a single person.' Renie Anderson, the league's executive vice president and chief revenue officer, stated that all three companies 'share our vision for fan innovation and engagement, but most importantly — our commitment to protecting the integrity and fairness of the game.'
This list largely aligns with the rules proposed for prediction markets by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The commission's message on June 10 regarding the proposed rules would permit standard sports contracts—on game winners, championship futures, and most of what currently trades—as serving the public interest. Contracts concerning player injuries, officiating decisions, specific in-play actions such as a particular pass or kick by a named player, physical altercations, and sub-collegiate level sports would be prohibited.
When asked about the prediction markets category, Anderson told ESPN: 'We are not commercially looking at that space at this time.' As reported by Front Office Sports, DraftKings, FanDuel, and Fanatics offer prediction market products; however, the data and intellectual property rights under the new agreements do not extend to them.
Sources told the publication that the league has been in negotiations for months with Kalshi, Polymarket, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to no avail, and no agreements will be in place by the season opener on September 9. 'I don't see a scenario where the NFL is ready for the start of the season,' said one source in the prediction markets industry. 'I'd be incredibly surprised if anything happens at all this season.'
A source familiar with the league's stance told FOS that the NFL is lobbying the commission for rules reflecting the integrity and consumer protection principles in place for legal sports betting and that the league is concerned about markets related to injuries, which it considers 'easily subject to manipulation and offensive' to players. In July, the league told the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that the commission's proposal fell significantly short on integrity, consumer protection, and manipulation prevention. Anderson also told ESPN that 'to have advertising in our games, you need to have official data, because you have to agree to our integrity requirements.'
Kalshi does not list markets explicitly tied to injuries but offers contracts on whether a given player will take the field—including on whether Patrick Mahomes, who tore his ACL in December, will play in Week 1. On August 25, Polymarket US self-certified a nearly identical product and delisted it the next day. Both exchanges have seats on the CFTC's Technology Advisory Committee, as does DraftKings CEO Jason Robbins.
Previous five-year agreements with FanDuel, DraftKings, and Caesars, collectively worth nearly $1 billion, expired on March 31 after negotiations with the two largest partners stalled over increased pricing for the official streaming data distributed through Genius Sports. Under the new agreements, Genius remains the league's exclusive data distribution partner and provides the real-time betting pattern monitoring that the league references in its integrity program.
Last October, the NHL entered partnerships with both Kalshi and Polymarket, and in March, MLB reached a deal with Polymarket, followed by individual clubs. Individual NFL franchises had expressed interest in securing their own deals, according to a source at a prediction markets company who told Front Office Sports that 'everyone wants to have a partner in this space,' but team-level deals are currently not permitted.
