The NFL Is Cracking Down on a Growing Integrity Crisis in the Expanded Sports Betting Industry

30 October 2026

The NFL is escalating its fight to protect the integrity of football, arguing that a proliferation of prediction markets with evermore granular contract types is getting out of control. The league, which in June urged more stringent regulations, is now asking the Supreme Court to let individual states rein in these emerging platforms — many of which do not share its concern over fairness.

The issue centers on a type of contract the NFL believes is dangerous for key reasons. "Some prediction market contracts present significant and immediate threats to the integrity of sporting events and to market participants," the NFL said in a filing with the Supreme Court. The contracts listed are "especially vulnerable to manipulation or spectacularly more prey to misconduct," the NFL continued, adding that it had flagged some markets "months earlier that were still listed on exchanges". For instance, the NFL objected to one bet linked to player injuries and another one to referee penalty calls.

The risk is widespread. The NFL is claiming that just the first Sunday of the 2023 season saw $3.3 billion in sports betting, with $1.8 billion touching NFL games alone. USA Today later confirmed that its independent check found the NFL's figures "roughly accurate". Work is being done to reach a more reliable estimate, in the meantime the League cited the $1.8 billion as its latest figure.

These contract categories the NFL listed:

Who goes in and out. For example, predicting which players will enter or leave a game during a week.

Broadcast mentions. For example, predicting how often a player will be mentioned on the broadcast.

Celebrity attendance. For example, predicting which celebrities will attend a game.

Individual miscalled plays. For example, predicting that a kicker will miss a field goal.

More on this is available via SportBettingSites.

In September, amid concerns over these proliferating contracts, the NFL's chief compliance officer, Sabrina Perel, sent a letter saying some problem bets were still listed, stoking unrealistic panic among participants.

The Commission for Commodity Futures and Trading has proposed that conventional markets — those based on game results, point spreads, player or team statistics — are generally safe, as long as consumer protections are in place. The CFTC would outlaw trades on specific individual plays, such as a single pitch, shot, or foul, but the NFL says this is still not enough.

For its part, prediction-market operators and the CFTC have resisted the league's call for a minimum trading age of 21, arguing it would limit participation without addressing integrity concerns. They also say a system where individual states set different standards on market activities would cause unnecessary confusion.

As a League, the NFL successfully partnered with sportsbooks in 2021, but these domestic operators do not account for everything happening in a global betting ecosystem. Offshore operators, operating without U.S. oversight and regulatory compliance, might not offer all the same contract types as the official partners, but plenty of overlap exists. Point spreads, moneylines, totals, player props — all are often seen in offshore shops, raising questions about loopholes.

Concrete oversight of a global betting phenomenon — one that is happening, growing, and evolving fast — is a lofty goal, and an increasing challenge. The spread of prediction markets is growing. Regulated or not, legal or not, how much is happening is hard to pinpoint, but participants and financial stakeholders are scurrying to throw ropes around the lines of what is acceptable. If regulations are too loose, integrity is threatened by more confusion and the laying down of tracks for the greatest number of shady operators.

The NFL is calling these increasingly unfamiliar parts of the betting ecosystem to the carpet as the question remains if federal regulations can keep pace with growth.