CFTC Deepens Sports Ties with NHL MOU

Summary

On May 21, 2026, the CFTC and the NHL announced the signing of an MOU intended to safeguard the integrity of professional hockey and to promote fair and transparent prediction markets. The key provisions of the MOU set forth the bases under which the CFTC and the NHL may share information and otherwise cooperate, the permissible uses of and protection of the confidentiality of shared information and key points of contact.

The MOU reflects the parties’ shared recognition that discussions, cooperation and the exchange of information on matters of mutual interest, in particular, the protection of professional hockey integrity and related event contract markets, may advance their respective regulatory and institutional missions. CFTC Chairman Selig described the MOU as “another step toward safeguarding the integrity of sports and protecting market participants in prediction markets from insider trading, fraud, and other abuses,” while NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman stated that the MOU “enhances the comprehensive integrity monitoring systems already in place and strengthens our ability to identify, deter, and address potential risks.” These statements underscore that market participants active in sports-linked event contracts, including regulated exchanges, intermediaries and their clients, should be attentive to the CFTC’s oversight framework this arrangement represents.

The MOU does not supersede any applicable laws or regulations, including Section 8 of the Commodity Exchange Act or the Privacy Act of 1974³, nor does it create any legally binding obligations or confer upon any third person any right to obtain, suppress or exclude information or to challenge the execution of a request under the MOU. Neither party is required to create, maintain, provide or share information with the other, and any decision to share information remains at the sole discretion of the providing party. Any information exchanged pursuant to the MOU may only be used by the CFTC exclusively in furtherance of its statutory responsibilities under the Commodity Exchange Act and by the NHL exclusively in connection with safeguarding the integrity of professional hockey and public confidence in the league. Notably, however, the MOU does not expand on precisely what the bounds of these limitations are, which leaves open the question of how statutory responsibilities and safeguarding integrity will be interpreted.

The MOU comes in the wake of the NHL’s recently announced landmark multiyear commercial partnerships with Kalshi and Polymarket, two prominent CFTC-regulated prediction market exchanges that enable participants to trade event contracts linked to NHL game outcomes on federally regulated platforms.⁴ Taken together, the commercial partnerships and the MOU demonstrate increased coordination between professional sports leagues, prediction markets and regulatory oversight.

Market participants and regulated entities active in the event contracts industry should note that the CFTC has also executed a substantially similar Memorandum of Understanding with Major League Baseball, creating a parallel framework for cooperation and information sharing aimed at protecting the integrity of professional baseball and associated event contract markets. Together, these memoranda reflect a deliberate and targeted regulatory approach by the CFTC to continue signaling its jurisdiction over prediction markets while developing structured oversight arrangements with professional sports leagues, as event contract markets continue to expand. In light of these developments, firms may want to evaluate their internal compliance programs and codes of ethics to confirm that their surveillance, reporting and market abuse controls are appropriately tailored to an evolving landscape in which event contracts referencing sports, league integrity monitoring and CFTC oversight are becoming increasingly coordinated across multiple professional sports and prediction markets.