Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Mike Selig said his agency is in talks with all major U.S. professional sports leagues as federal regulators deepen oversight of sports-related prediction markets.
The regulator is seeking broader cooperation with leagues to monitor insider trading and market manipulation related to event contracts, Selig said Tuesday at FINRA’s annual conference in Washington, D.C., following the CFTC’s earlier announcement of a data-sharing agreement with Major League Baseball in March.
“We have a memorandum of understanding with Major League Baseball and we are in discussions with all the professional sports leagues,” Selig said at the event hosted by the brokerage industry’s self-regulatory organization.
The CFTC agreement with baseball was the first formal information sharing agreement with a professional sports organization. The deal comes as federally regulated prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket move deeper into sports contracts, sparking disputes with state gaming regulators over who controls the sector.
Selig has taken an aggressive stance in this legal battle. He said the CFTC had already sued “about five or six states” for attempts to block federally regulated event contracts and promised the agency would continue to pursue lawsuits against states that challenge the commission’s authority. Under U.S. law, derivatives listed on CFTC-regulated exchanges fall under federal oversight rather than state gaming laws, he has repeatedly argued.
“Different products, parallel regimes,” he said, comparing sports prediction contracts to traditional casino betting.
The president also explained how the agency addresses insider trading in prediction markets, an area that regulators have only recently begun to confront.
Selig cited a case monitored by the Kalshi platform involving YouTube creator MrBeast in which an employee allegedly traded ahead of market development information related to posting content online. He also described hypothetical scenarios related to sports, including coaches or team personnel exchanging non-public information about injuries before games.
The exchanges themselves remain the “first line of defense,” Selig said, as they conduct know-your-customer and anti-money laundering checks that can help identify suspicious activity.
The CFTC also expects prediction markets to spread to mainstream investment products.
Selig said regulators are reviewing exchange-traded products and funds related to forecast market strategies and coordinating oversight with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). SEC President Paul Atkins is scheduled to speak at the conference later this afternoon.
Selig’s remarks signal a broader shift at the CFTC under the Trump administration, which has embraced prediction markets and crypto-related financial products after years of regulatory resistance to the sector.
