In the latest validation of prediction markets, the NHL announced Tuesday that it has struck licensing agreements with both Kalshi and Polymarket.
The NHL becomes the first major US sports league to ink an official partnership in the prediction market space.
The deal gives Kalshi and Polymarket access to NHL data, rights to the league’s logos, and official partnership designation.
Kalshi is already leveraging the relationship, displaying the NHL logo on its app. Without the proper licensing agreements, the company has resisted using official marks of any league; Polymarket stopped using NFL logos on its platform after feeling blowback for displaying them without permission early in the season.
The NHL also has official relationships with multiple sportsbooks, whose market share Kalshi, Polymarket and others are after. In the minds of many gambling industry observers, as well as state regulators, there is little distinction between sports betting markets and the “sports event contracts” prediction markets offer.
What NHL deal means For Kalshi, Polymarket and prediction markets overall
While it’s odd to see Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour and Polymarket’s Shayne Coplan quoted in the same press release, the rivals’ simultaneous partnerships provide further legitimization of their industry.
“Prediction markets are here to stay,” Keith Wachtel, president of NHL business, told the Wall Street Journal’s Alexander Osipovich, who first reported the news.
It won’t move the needle much in terms of trading volume – among the four major sports, hockey does the least sports betting handle at sportsbooks – but the NHL alliance amounts to an endorsement of prediction markets.
Mansour says the deal helps Kalshi shed its “renegade” image.
“One big step forward for the legitimacy of prediction markets,” Coplan posted on X.
NHL on its own with prediction markets
The NHL believes aligning with the two leading prediction markets is a means to expose their product to “tech-savvy users of prediction markets,” per Wachtel, but the league is ruffling feathers by cozying up to these gray-market operators.
For one thing, it probably isn’t sitting well with the NHL’s sportsbook partners.
The partnership is also a departure from other leagues’ public posture toward prediction markets. The NFL, NBA and MLB have all filed comments with the CFTC, expressing concern about prediction markets’ potential negative impact on the integrity of their games and their too-close resemblance to traditional sports betting.
On a call with media ahead of the 2025 season, NFL VP of Sports Betting David Highhill said, “We’re concerned that if these markets aren’t properly regulated, they could be susceptible to manipulation or price distortion. … Prediction markets lack certain regulatory requirements that we know regulated sportsbooks are subject to.”
Bill Miller, president of the American Gaming Association, called the relationship “deeply concerning”
“This move sends a troubling message: that integrity, responsibility, and clear legality are optional in sports gaming,” Miller said in a statement to ESPN. “No professional league should lend its brand to companies operating in defiance of state law and consumer protection norms.”
The NFL, Highhill intimated in August, is also uncomfortable with the ongoing legal battles between prediction markets and states, but the blessing of the CFTC appears to be good enough for the NHL.
