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CFTC gives prediction markets 30 days to address state access blocks
The CFTC issued guidance saying state-based geographic restrictions generally conflict with impartial-access requirements for designated contract markets in the United States. It gave exchanges 30 days to remove conflicting blocks or explain to the Division of Market Oversight, with supporting evidence, why compliance is not feasible. The same framework applies to intermediaries and other entities providing market access.
The CFTC said state-based geographic restrictions on prediction markets are generally inconsistent with its impartial access rules, and gave operators and exchanges 30 days to lift them or explain why they cannot. The agency issued the guidance on Thursday as a formal interpretation of its impartial access requirements for designated contract markets. It said location alone should not be used to deny access to eligible participants within the United States.
CFTC orders exchanges to end US geofencing within 30 days
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered designated contract markets to end US geofencing that conflicts with impartial-access requirements within 30 days, or explain why they cannot comply. The order puts exchanges offering sports-event contracts at odds with court orders restricting Kalshi in several states and on tribal lands. Chairman Michael S. Selig said derivatives markets must operate nationally.
Within 30 days, designated contract markets must end geofencing restrictions in the U.S. that violate “impartial access requirements,” or give reasons they cannot comply, the CFTC has ordered. CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said in a statement that derivatives markets "must operate on a uniform basis at a national scale" to serve the purposes of the Commodity Exchange Act.
DraftKings plans up to $1.05bn in prediction-markets investment through 2027
DraftKings CEO Jason Robins defended the company’s planned prediction-markets investment on its third-quarter earnings call. The company projects adjusted EBITDA investment of $900m to $1.05bn across 2026 and 2027, and Robins said customer acquisition costs could take about 41 months to recover if the Supreme Court bars sports event contracts in July 2028.
DraftKings plans to invest $900m to $1.05bn in prediction markets across 2026 and 2027, the company said in its third-quarter earnings release. The projected investment is measured in adjusted EBITDA.
Federal judge bars Kalshi sports contracts on suing California tribes’ lands
US District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley granted a preliminary injunction in Blue Lake Rancheria v. Kalshi in California on Wednesday. The order bars Kalshi from offering sports contracts on the plaintiff tribes’ lands and requires the tribes to provide boundary maps by 13 November; Kalshi must report its compliance steps within 21 days.
A San Francisco federal judge has blocked Kalshi from listing sports event contracts on land belonging to the California tribes that are suing it. Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, who sits in the Northern District of California, granted the tribes a preliminary injunction on Wednesday in the case Blue Lake Rancheria v. Kalshi.
Sporttrade gains CFTC DCM registration as Utah summons Kalshi founders
Utah has summoned Kalshi co-founders Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara to appear in Salt Lake City on 4 December over 14 criminal charges filed by the state’s attorney general. Separately, the CFTC approved Sporttrade as a designated contract market, following its derivatives clearing organisation approval in mid-October; Sporttrade said it is onboarding brokers including Fliff.
Tarek Mansour, who serves as chief executive, and Luana Lopes Lara, the chief operating officer, are the co-founders of Kalshi facing 14 criminal charges in Utah state court. The state's attorney general, Derek Brown, brought 13 felony counts plus a single misdemeanor against the company in a late-October filing that also identified Mansour and Lara as co-defendants. An initial arraignment in Salt Lake City is scheduled for 4 December. Daniel Wallach wrote in a post that the company must "personally appear" at 8:30 a.m. that day before Salt Lake City's Third District Court.