NFL backs New Jersey Supreme Court bid in Kalshi dispute

New Jersey's effort to take its Kalshi dispute to the Supreme Court has the NFL's support, the league said in an amicus brief filed on Thursday. In that filing, the league contended that contracts tied to sporting events do not meet the definition of swaps and instead belong within state gambling regulation. The brief was published on 8 October 2026.

In April, the Third Circuit stopped New Jersey from applying its gambling statutes to Kalshi. By contrast, the Sixth and Ninth Circuits sided with states including Ohio, Tennessee, California and Nevada, according to the brief. The league said this disagreement has left the legal sports betting sector and other gambling interests facing uncertainty.

At issue is whether sports event contracts fall within Dodd-Frank's definition of swaps, a reading that would hand the CFTC sole jurisdiction over them. The league's brief praised the Sixth and Ninth Circuits for letting states enforce their gambling laws against prediction markets. In the filing, the NFL maintained that the statutory and historical setting of Dodd-Frank limits "swap" to instruments designed for hedging risk that already exists, whereas sports contracts generate risk chiefly for wagering. The brief further observed that a nationwide federal ban on sports betting was still in force when Congress enacted Dodd-Frank in 2010.

Fanatics, FanDuel and DraftKings are the league's sports betting partners, and all three honor its prohibited wager list while also running prediction markets, including on sports in states lacking regulated betting industries. No prediction market operator has a partnership with the NFL, since Commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC last month he wants "stronger regulations" safeguarding the integrity of the game. The league has repeatedly written to prediction markets asking them to take down markets it deems "objectionable" and prone to manipulation. The brief states that none of the four categories the NFL identified has been banned outright by the CFTC, and that Kalshi and Polymarket still list some of those contracts.

As of September 2025, the commission employed 543 people, the brief said, following the removal of roughly 25% of its staff since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025. By comparison, the gaming boards of Pennsylvania and Nevada each have nearly 400 staff regulating their states' industries. The league also took aim at self-certification, the mechanism by which operators can put contracts up for trading the following business day, and said prediction markets have refused to adopt its "prohibited bettor lists."

Goodell has called prediction markets potential partners, the brief said. The NFL would like a result before the 2027 season begins, citing billions of dollars bet on NFL games through prediction markets and saying a longer delay would increase consumer harm and risk to game integrity. The league said it would prefer a ruling similar to those of the Sixth and Ninth Circuits, but that a ruling in favour of the Third Circuit would at least give it clarity and a path forward.