MLB urges CFTC to introduce integrity and player protection to sports event contracts
League’s EVP of legal, Bryan Seeley, argues the product offered by Kalshi and Crypto.com fails to provide the same protections as legalized sports betting
Major League Baseball (MLB) has aired concerns that the growing sports event contracts space is not providing the same integrity and consumer protections that exist in the regulated sports betting arena.
In an email signed by MLB EVP of legal and operations, Bryan Seeley, the exec urged the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to tighten requirements on prediction markets to replicate those frameworks in place across states that have legalized sports betting.
Seeley’s recommendation arrived as part of the feedback, comments, and suggestions the CFTC has requested on prediction markets ahead of a roundtable debate on the subject next month.
Alongside MLB, the likes of the American Gaming Association, GeoComply, and the Campaign for Fairer Gambling have all submitted responses.
The core point of Seeley’s email was that existing regulations, which MLB supported, has allowed for integrity risks to be flagged, and in some cases prevent violations of sports betting policies.
Kalshi currently has three live baseball markets on its site, including who will win the World Series, as well as eventual winners of the two MLB divisions: the American League and the National League.
The EVP’s contention was that the same parameters are not in place for prediction markets, and in some cases, those firms would not be permitted to share integrity risks with MLB.
Seeley wrote: “The sports event contracts that exchanges have recently offered resemble sports betting.
“The limited MLB event contracts available today do not carry the same integrity risks as prop bets or even single-game bets, but we expect that equivalent offerings will arrive soon.
“As the resemblance between sports event contracts and traditional sports betting markets continues to grow, so too does the need to replicate the integrity and consumer protections that exist at the state level.
“Currently, those protections are lacking. For example, MLB is not aware of anything that would require exchanges and brokers to notify leagues of potential threats to game integrity, cooperate with league investigations into player, umpire, or employee misconduct, or share data for integrity purposes.
“MLB has been advised that some exchanges and brokers take the position that they are not even permittedto share information with MLB under current CFTC regulations.”
Seeley’s email went on to note that MLB is keen to engage with the CFTC, brokers, and exchanges on the topic.
He added: “MLB has supported legal sports betting at the state level based on robust regulation and relationships in which sports leagues are viewed as partners, and integrity of competition is considered paramount. If the CFTC decides to permit sports event contracts, this same integrity framework should be applied.”
MLB’s letter arrived days after Nevada issued a cease-and-desist letter to Kalshi over its sports event contracts in the state.
Sports event contracts were launched in January by the New York-headquartered firm across 50 states for those over the age of 18, effectively bringing sports betting to the entirety of the US.