The National Football League (NFL) continues to deal with the implications of harnessing legalized sports betting as a revenue driver and form of fan engagement.
About to commence the NFL’s seventh season since the fall of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act created that reality, league officials, during a video call with reporters Monday, laid out the NFL’s position on this year’s troublesome topics: prediction markets, microbetting, and harassment of players by disgruntled bettors.
NFL stance on prediction markets now clear
Players are forbidden to use prediction markets to speculate on NFL games, ever, and are barred from any type of gambling while working or on team property.
All other league employees are barred from using prediction markets for anything, in keeping with the league’s sports betting policy.
“Our view,” Sabrina Perel, NFL vice president and chief compliance officer said on Monday’s call, “is that these platforms mimic sports betting and that they are covered as prohibited conduct under our policy, and that will be for all of our personnel. And now we’re educating on this point as well, specifically stating that engaging in these platforms would be prohibited under the policy.”
NFL Vice President of Sports Betting David Highhill, noting that the league submitted objections to the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in 2024 over prediction markets like Kalshi being allowed to offer sports events contracts, described them as susceptible to manipulation and price distortion. They lack, he added, “regulatory requirements that we know regulated sportsbooks are subjected to.”
“I think what’s important about the sports betting markets right now that are legal is they have robust protections that include information-sharing between sportsbooks and the leagues,” he continued. “There’s integrity-monitoring requirements. There’s prohibitions on certain types of wagers or markets that are more subject to influence. And there’s the requirements sometimes to use consistent and reliable official league data. And there’s also mandatory responsible betting requirements and resources.
“I think for us, the key distinction is that for now, prediction markets lack certain regulatory requirements that we know regulated sportsbooks are subject to, like information-sharing, responsible betting tools, the objectionable bet-prohibitions. So, however this comes to be through the legal channels, I think it’s really important that we take advantage of the robust framework that we put in place via the legalized sports betting process. “
Microbets seen as high-pain, low-gain
On the topic of microbets, the league continues to pressure sportsbooks and state regulators to outlaw what Highhill described as having “minimum fan-engagement potential and are more subject, potentially, to misbehavior.”
Microbets continue to garner a miniscule sliver of the sports betting handle in the United States, which makes them easier to police and manipulate, a tradeoff that Highhill suggested was not palatable to the NFL. Major League Baseball (MLB) is currently engaged in a microbetting investigation where Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis L. Ortiz are alleged to have manipulated first-pitch microbets this season.
“Something that’s been in the news we’ve been very focused on since the initiation of our work in this area has been proactively prohibiting certain types of wagers that we think provide the minimum expanded engagement and could also present higher risk to the betting markets,” Highhill said. “We’ve been consistent with those over the years. Those include prohibiting any type of officiating-related wagers, things that are inherently objectionable, like player injuries, and as well single-player bets that are 100 percent controllable by a single player on a single play. So things like ‘Will this kicker miss a field goal?’ are things that we’ve worked collaboratively across the board with operators to make sure those types of wagers are not offered.
NFL Security, law enforcement track abusers
Jeff Miller (pictured above), the league’s executive vice president of public affairs and policy, and player health and safety, said NFL Security is aware that abuse of players happens “from time to time.” Those found to have made such threats are subject to banishment from stadiums, he said, and legal action.
“Just to be clear, not every threat made to a player has anything to do with gambling, but some may be because individuals are upset about legalized sports gambling going wrong in some circumstance,” he said. “It’s a very real-world issue and it’s one that we take with the utmost seriousness.”
The National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) has logged reports of fan abuse toward players and is known to support enhanced protocols to protect players’ safety, mental health, and their loved ones. While the National Basketball Players Association joined the National Basketball Association recently in calling for the elimination of some betting markets, the NFLPA has not issued an official stance on props or microbets.
