EndGame: Super Bowl Won't Have Prediction Ads

The U.S. sports betting world moves quickly and unpredictably in 2026. In order to properly take stock of it all, we offer InGame’s “EndGame,” an end-of-week compilation of the top storylines, some overlooked items, and all the other news bits from this past week that we found interesting.

Super Bowl won’t feature prediction ads

Front Office Sports (FOS) reported Thursday that the NFL has added prediction markets to its list of banned advertisements during the Super Bowl. FOS’ source said that prediction market ads were disallowed before the beginning of this past regular season. The NFL doesn’t have a “banned” list per se, but only allows sports betting companies that are official partners or approved sportsbooks to advertise during its games. No prediction market fits either category.

Though the “prohibited list” has never been made public, it’s believed to include spots for adult content, firearms, hard liquor, contraceptives, and non-FDA approved dietary supplements, FOS reported.

Ads for sports betting platforms and products are allowed, but they’re capped at six, NFL Director of Communications Tim Schlittner told GamblingHarm.org Jan. 21. In general, the league allows one gambling ad per quarter, plus one during pregame and one at halftime. In previous years, there have been fewer sports betting ads than allowed due to cost — an average of $8 million for a 30-second spot, with some ads reportedly going for $10 million.

Football stadiums a hot ticket for wagering

Geofencing company GeoComply posted charts and data Thursday showing that New England’s Gillette Stadium was a hotbed of new gambling activity during the 2025 season — geolocation checks grew inside the stadium by 34% against 2024, and acquisitions grew by 59%. Unfortunately for Patriots fans traveling to Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara Feb. 8, sports betting isn’t legal in California.

Geolocation checks and acquisitions were also up significantly at Allegiant Stadium (Raiders), Empower Field (Broncos), Acrisure Stadium (Steelers), and Bank of America Stadium (Panthers).

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GeoComply also noted that football stadiums are “reliable” for signing up new customers, and the top stadium for 2025 was GEHA Field (Chiefs), where sportsbooks signed up an average of 525 new customers per game.

Kindbridge announces new PG treatments

Kindbridge Behavioral Health announced Thursday a partnership with Colorado’s Axis Integrated Mental Health that also involves adding Deep TMS and ketamine to augment talk therapy for those with gambling addiction.

Kindbridge, a leader in offering and providing therapy for gambling addiction, is taking its treatment a step further through the partnership. Deep TMS is a non-invasive procedure using magnetic fields that is also used to treat depression and smoking addiction. Ketamine would be administered via a nasal spray. Combining treatments, Daniel Umfleet, CEO of Kindbridge, said will help “Colorado families to take action quickly and access specialized treatment that matches the true complexity of the problem.”

Jill R. Dorson

UFC 86’d ‘suspicious’ fight

The Ultimate Fighting Championship canceled a bout on Jan. 24 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas after Dana White, UFC president and CEO, received a “tip” from one of the league’s gaming-integrity services about a suspicious betting pattern, ESPN reported.

The lightweight match between Michael Johnson and Alex Hernandez was removed from the card only three months after the FBI and Nevada Athletic Commission launched investigations into a match between Isaac Dulgarian and Yadier del Valle, in which the odds shifted dramatically toward del Valle, with an unexpectedly enormous volume on a first-round submission. Dulgarian tapped out in Round 1.

Unconfirmed reports and social media claims allege that federal regulators flagged more than 100 UFC fights for abnormal betting patterns in 2025 alone. White vehemently denies this, calling the allegations “clickbait.” But a story on MMASucka, “UFC Betting Scandals Are Adding Up,” points out that a variety of factors, not the least of which is the low pay for fighters and referees, makes each UFC scandal feel bigger than the previous one.

Dana White reveals why Michael Johnson vs. Alexander Hernandez was pulled from #UFC324 at the last minute:

"We got called from the gaming integrity service, and I said I’m not doing this shit again. We pulled the fight." pic.twitter.com/l7hhqrTvXr
— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) January 25, 2026

Call for independent integrity watchdog

On the heels of the extensive sports betting scandal in college basketball and another in Major League Baseball, Carolyn Pokorny, counsel to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, has proposed an independent “inspector general for sports integrity” to be funded by, but with no oversight from, the leagues.

Pokorny has litigated sports betting cases; she’s also a former inspector general for New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. She told CBS News Jan. 21, “When your reputation and business model are at stake, you can’t investigate yourself credibly. You need someone with independence to do it.”

On Dec. 12, Pokorny penned an op-ed for Bloomberg Law, in which she compared her prospective sports integrity inspector general to government inspectors general and Wall Street’s private watchdog, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. She said, “Those kinds of prosecutions are critical. But prosecutors are stretched very thin and they have a huge mandate. They’re handling terrorism, drug cartels, and human trafficking. They’re not the sports integrity police.”

3 banned for betting on teammates

Three European track and field athletes were penalized for betting on their teammates in championship meets, the Monaco-based Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) of World Athletics announced Thursday.

French middle-distance runner Aurore Fleury won €5,000 ($5,970) from a bet placed on the 2024 European championships in Rome; she was banned for six months and fined €3,000 ($3,600). Two German discus throwers bet €100 and €40 on a world championship event in Tokyo in September and were suspended for three months.

The AIU cited “lack of education on betting” as one of the mitigating factors in determining what it implied were restrained sanctions.

Trusty FanDuel edges out DraftKings

The Newsweek/BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards for 2026 released Jan. 22 included a definitive winner for most trusted sports betting provider. Last year, the category ended in a dead heat between FanDuel and DraftKings, but in this year’s consumer survey of 35,215 U.S. shoppers encompassing 182,000 brand evaluations across 359 categories, FanDuel carried the day.

Is it an editorial comment on the relative importance of trust in a sports betting provider that this category comes in at No. 350, only nine from rock bottom? Hazelnut spread (Nutella) is No. 76, beard trimmer (Wahl) is No. 140, and toilet-bowl cleaner (Lysol) is No. 273. Just sayin’.

Is the ‘Kardashian Kurse’ for real?

This rumored “Kurse,” a superstition that men who date or marry members of the Kardashian-Jenner clan experience negative consequences, will be put to the test during the Super Bowl. Fanatics Sportsbook’s first-ever Super Bowl ad, “Bet on Kendall,” lets fans decide where they stand on this urgent matter.

Jenner revealed her pick to win the Super Bowl on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Wednesday: the New England Patriots. Since then, fans have been able to bet on or against Kendall on the Fanatics app.

The 30-second ad, which will air during halftime, is a “flirtatious self-deprecating” spot in which Jenner explains “how she’s turned her rumored effect on men into winning bets on Fanatics,” per the press release.

Odds and ends

After parting ways with Underdog in late November, the Kansas City Royals have named Circa Sports as an official sports betting partner. The partnership officially debuts Friday at the Royals Rally Casino Night at Kauffman Stadium, “presented by Circa Sports.”
Soccer United Marketing, the commercial arm of Major League Soccer (MLS), announced Monday a new multi-year partnership with Polymarket, naming the prediction market an official partner of MLS in the United States. Under the agreement, Polymarket will serve as the exclusive prediction market partner of MLS, MLS All-Star Game, MLS Cup, and Leagues Cup.
Out of Bounds: The Sports Betting Boom is a new series from VICE TV that takes an inside look at the systems, scandals, and psychology behind modern sports. The documentary premiered on television Thursday and will begin airing on the VICE Sports YouTube channel Friday.