American Gaming Association (AGA) president Bill Miller has criticised the National Hockey League’s (NHL) partnerships with Kalshi and Polymarket as “deeply troubling”.
The NHL agreed to the deals with the prediction markets providers earlier this week, designating them as official prediction markets partners of the NHL and providing them with access to official proprietary NHL data, marks and logos.
Miller accuses Kalshi and Polymarket of offering their services without any player protection or integrity standards in place, posing a risk to both consumers and sporting integrity.
The AGA chief also believes that official partnerships such as these with major sports leagues “risks misleading fans into thinking these platforms offer the same protections and legal clarity as licensed sportsbooks. They do not. In fact, the legal status of these platforms under federal law is far from settled”.
Miller points out that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is yet to fully reviewed the contracts offered by providers such as Kalshi and Polymarket, and that there are questions about whether they comply with the prohibitions on gaming under the Commodity Exchange Act.
Miller concludes: “Gaming regulations are not optional. And leagues should not lend their credibility to companies that refuse to play by the rules.
“The AGA has been vocal in urging the CFTC to do its job and enforce its own rules. Congress made clear that gaming contracts are not under the CFTC’s purview. That remains true today, and we’ll continue to advocate for a legal, transparent, and responsible gaming market, and we won’t hesitate to call out efforts that undermine it.”