NBA Seeks Prediction-Market Data to Protect Game Integrity

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Friday that the league wants access to prediction-market data to detect insider trading and protect game integrity as sports contracts face competing state and federal oversight.

“Whether it’s called a prediction market, whether it’s sports betting, it’s the same issues for our league and I think for all the leagues, there’s issues around integrity first and foremost,” Silver said. “We want access to that data. We also want control of the market.”

Silver described contracts tied to whether a coach will be fired as “odd behavior” and supported setting the minimum trading age at 21. He also backed consistent federal oversight of prediction-market platforms.

“From at least the NBA standpoint, we have roughly 40 different jurisdictions regulating us right now,” Silver said. “So to have a consistent policy nationally, I think would be in our best interest.”

The comments followed the NFL’s amicus brief filed Thursday with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of New Jersey regulators. The NFL argued that sports contracts offered through prediction markets are gambling products rather than financial swaps regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The brief also cited manipulation concerns involving contracts tied to player injuries and performance. The NFL has urged a minimum trading age of 21, while Silver supported federal authority over the platforms.

The debate has intensified as the NFL pushes for state oversight of sports prediction contracts and NFL prediction-market contract volumes have recently soared. Multiple courts have addressed whether states or the federal government should regulate the contracts, including a ruling last week in Illinois that halted implementation of the state’s gambling laws against Kalshi and Coinbase event contracts.

The NBA’s position adds another major U.S. sports league to a dispute over market access, contract design and manipulation risks.