Sports Betting In United States: Pro Leagues Could Run Platforms In Future, As Per Report

The relationship between USA sports leagues and betting has been an ever-evolving one. We might witness the latest shift in the paradigm of American sports betting, with the leagues themselves expected to operate platforms where bets are exchanged. (More Sports News)

The supposed legitimacy of sports events contracts offered on platforms like Crypto.com and Kalshi, regulated by Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), could pave the way for this change.

“If CFTC-regulated sports exchanges become a reality, the sports leagues themselves will swiftly move to operate such exchanges,” a Casino Report piece quotes Florida State University professor Ryan Rodenberg, who has followed the Kalshi-CFTC litigation closely, as saying. “By doing so, the leagues will be direct competitors in the space and will try to put certain sports betting operators out of business,” Rodenberg adds in the report.

The context to the scenario is this: the United States Supreme Court's decision in the Murphy vs NCAA case in 2018 transformed the legal framework around sports betting, opening up the floodgates for the legalisation of sports wagering across the States. Until then, the for big pro sports leagues, including the Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association, had prevented the expansion of legal sports betting outside Nevada.

Then in 2024, Kalshi won a legal battle against the CFTC, submitting that the agency had no standing to disallow trading on political markets or events such as who would win the American presidential election. A district court ruled in favour of Kalshi, and Crypto.com as well as Kalshi have further pushed the agenda, with trading on sports events like the NFL conference championships, the Super Bowl, the NBA title underway.

Given all that has transpired, sports leagues are poised to activate betting exchange networks in the future. “Running a betting exchange is an entry point for sports leagues who can charge commissions on every transaction, while not having a pecuniary position in the underlying outcomes like a traditional sportsbook where bets are made against the house,” Rodenberg explained in the report.