It appears that ads from companies like Polymarket or Kalshi will not air during the upcoming Super Bowl. According to the NFL, the league placed prediction market commercials under its “prohibited categories” for Super Bowl advertising on February 8.
As reported by Front Office Sports, prediction markets now sit under the same category as tobacco, pornography, firearms, “and other controversial subjects.”
Prediction markets have become a concern within the sports industry. It’s something that the NFL has pushed back on, despite other companies using their name and licensing, gladly adopting it.
In recent months, more news has broken about games being allegedly thrown over gambling. While these have mostly stemmed from proposition bets, there has been increasing scrutiny of prediction markets.
NFL cracks down on prediction market ads for the Super Bowl amid betting scandals
Gambling commercials aren’t off the table, as a maximum of six have said to be airing this year. However, the NFL is pushing back on prediction markets, as it claims that they don’t have the same safeguards in place that regular sportsbooks would provide.
On Kalshi, the bet for the Super Bowl game is weirdly titled as seen by ReadWrite. Rather than using any of the NFL’s branding, like “Super Bowl”, “Seattle Seahawks”, or “New England Patriots”, it is has been labelled “Pro Football Champion” in some instances.
The wager currently predicts that the Seahawks, or just “Seattle”, will win against “New England” to become the victor. The same is also for the NBA, or “Pro Basketball Champion” game.
Meanwhile, as a hockey league, the NHL has gladly accepted prediction markets as part of the world of the game; it is fully licensed, with logos and registration marks.
Despite this, Kalshi currently has a $153,624,734 volume for the game, meaning large cash payouts are expected. Polymarket has a considerably larger volume, with it sitting at $695,749,958. It also using the same terminology on the wager.
Featured image: NFL via Wikicommons, David Morris
