Brian Quintenz, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) suddenly central to the legal sports betting industry in the United States, is scheduled for consideration by a Senate committee on Monday.
According to a release, nominees for the vacancy will be the subject of a business meeting in conjunction with a 5:30 p.m. ET floor vote.
The CFTC nomination process falls under the auspices of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. The meeting was announced by Chairman John Boozman (R-Arkansas) and Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota).
Quintenz’s nomination was to be considered on July 21, possibly putting him one step closer to a floor vote and running the body that oversees prediction markets. His consideration was removed from the schedule on short notice, however, because, according to Bloomberg, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Mississippi) had a flight delay.
A spokesperson for the Republicans on the committee told InGame: “We will need all 12 Republicans to be present to advance the nomination because it became clear it will be a party-line vote.”
CFTC central to sports betting industry
The leadership of the CFTC could go far in sorting out the nationwide legal battle over prediction markets, most notably Kalshi, which has frequently self-certified sports events contract markets that very much resemble traditional sports betting. The CFTC has so far offered little resistance, and Quintenz did not telegraph a harder line in earlier testimony over his nomination.
Quintenz is currently a Kalshi board member and shareholder, but he said at his June hearing that he would step down from the board and sell his shares before he assumes the CFTC position.
Kalshi has claimed in fending off cease-and-desist orders in numerous states that it is governed at the federal level by the CFTC. States, however, claim that these markets are illegally offering sports betting outside of state regulations.
Since the repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 2018, 41 U.S. jurisdictions have legalized sports betting. The entry of disruptor platforms like Kalshi has sent state gambling commissions and attorneys general scrambling to protect revenue, and prompted already legal sportsbooks to begin seeking out potential partners in a hypothetical redrawn gambling map.
DraftKings, for example, is reportedly in talks to purchase exchange market startup Railbird, FanDuel reportedly had preliminary talks with Kalshi. Also, Polymarket, a prediction market site not currently available to U.S.-based customers, this week announced the purchase of licensed derivative exchange QCEX to launch in the U.S.
