CFTC Signs MOU with National Hockey League over Prediction Markets

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), under the sole leadership of Republican Michael Selig, announced a memorandum of understanding with the National Hockey League to “protect the integrity of professional hockey and maintain fair and transparent prediction markets.”

In a Thursday announcement, Selig said the move was intended to protect prediction market users from “insider trading, fraud, and other abuse” as the CFTC continues to maintain what it calls its “exclusive jurisdiction” over platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket.

The agency signed a similar agreement with Major League Baseball in March, at the same time the league announced Polymarket would be its Official Prediction Market Exchange.

According to the CFTC, the NHL agreement would allow the two entities to “share information and coordinate to protect the integrity of both professional hockey and related event contracts” on platforms. The NHL’s 2026-27 season is scheduled to begin in September, but as of Thursday, Kalshi and Polymarket listed event contracts for the Stanley Cup playoffs, which began in April.

Source: CFTC

Under Selig, who remains the CFTC chair and the agency’s sole commissioner, the financial regulator has repeatedly claimed that it alone has the right to oversee and regulate prediction markets. At the chair’s direction, the CFTC has filed legal actions against state authorities Ohio, Connecticut, Illinois and New York over prediction markets, and recently in Minnesota over what it called a US state’s “first outright ban” of the platforms.

Related: House committee leaders urge Trump to nominate CFTC members, citing CLARITY Act

The CFTC’s leadership is expected to consist of a bipartisan panel of five commissioners, but Selig has been serving as the only member since December. Despite urging from lawmakers, US President Donald Trump had not publicly announced any nominations to fill the seats as of Thursday.

Polymarket filed to ‘list combinatorial outcome contracts’

On Wednesday, the prediction markets company filed a product self-certification letter to CFTC Secretary Christopher Kirkpatrick. According to the company, this would allow Polymarket to combine two or more underlying event contracts on the platform.

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