NCAA urges prediction market Kalshi to clarify relationship, address integrity concerns

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has written to Kalshi, a federally licensed prediction market operator, raising concerns about contest integrity and the company’s representation of its relationship with the college sports governing body.

In a letter dated Oct. 30, Scott Bearby, the NCAA’s senior vice president and chief legal officer, asked Kalshi to clarify how it monitors its college sports markets for integrity issues, detects and manages prohibited customers, and whether it intends to report suspicious activity or cooperate with NCAA-led investigations.

The NCAA also requested that Kalshi ban betting markets similar to proposition bets, which the company began offering this fall. Bearby said such markets heighten “the risk of integrity and harassment concerns,” particularly for student-athletes.

The letter additionally raised objections over language on Kalshi’s website that, according to the NCAA, implies an affiliation between the two organizations. The phrase “Outcome verified from NCAA,” Bearby said, could “cause significant harm to the value and goodwill of the NCAA brand.”

The NCAA urged Kalshi to amend the language to “Outcome sourced from NCAA.com” and include a clear disclaimer stating that no relationship exists between the two.

“We welcome Kalshi’s stance on its efforts to protect the integrity of NCAA competitions and to reduce instances of abuse and harassment directed at student-athletes and other participants,” Bearby wrote.

A Kalshi spokesperson told ESPN the company was reviewing the NCAA’s requests and had already begun updating its website.

“Kalshi has robust market integrity provisions required by our status as a federally licensed financial exchange,” the spokesperson said. “We value the NCAA’s feedback and are working on adjusting the language on our site.”

Founded as a prediction market platform, Kalshi allows users to trade on outcomes of real-world events, including college basketball and football. The company is currently facing lawsuits from state regulators who allege its event-based contracts amount to illegal sports betting. Kalshi maintains it is regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), not by state authorities.

Earlier this year, Kalshi partnered with IC360, an integrity monitoring firm used by major collegiate and professional sports leagues, to bolster its compliance framework.

The NCAA’s move comes amid heightened scrutiny of betting activities involving college athletes. In September, the association disclosed that a Fresno State men’s basketball player was found to have manipulated his performance as part of a prop betting scheme, one of roughly 30 ongoing investigations into current and former players.