How I Made $5000 in the Stock Market

NHL Breaks the Ice in Sports Betting With Prediction-Market Partnerships

Oct 22, 2025 13:49:00 -0400 by Nick Devor | #Consumer

Morgan Geekie of the Boston Bruins celebrates after scoring a goal against Sergei Bobrovsky of the Florida Panthers on Tuesday. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Key Points

Prediction markets are skating ahead.

The National Hockey League named Kalshi and Polymarket the “official prediction market partners of the NHL” on Wednesday, making it the first professional sports league to join with the prediction markets that have upended the sports-betting world.

Hockey is one of America’s less popular sports, so bets on games don’t make up a significant portion of the gambling industry’s profits. But for Kalshi and Polymarket, the NHL deal is less about making money than gaining legitimacy.

The two companies will now be able to get their ads in the rink and on fans’ screens for every NHL game broadcast, from the regular season all the way up to the Stanley Cup playoffs, according to a press release. The deal also gives them access to NHL data and allows them to use the league’s name and logo on their platforms and products.

Kalshi has no such deal with the National Football League, so even though it allowed traders to bet on the recent Chiefs-Eagles Super Bowl, it couldn’t use those copyrighted terms. Instead, it called the game the “pro football championship” between Kansas City and Philadelphia.

While the sports-betting sites DraftKings and FanDuel have longstanding partnerships with the NHL and other leagues, the NHL deal brings prediction markets one step closer to an even playing field with legacy sportsbooks. “It should be clear now—prediction markets are here to stay,” Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said in the press release.

Prediction markets have been a major headwind for the online sports- betting duopoly. Shares of both DraftKings and Flutter , FanDuel’s parent, are down 7.5% and 2% respectively this year, putting them far behind the S&P 500 .

Their prediction market counterparts, meanwhile, have been on a tear. This month, Kalshi announced a funding round that values it at $5 billion, while the same week, Polymarket completed a $2 billion deal with the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange.

DraftKings has seen the writing on the wall. On Tuesday, it announced plans for “DraftKings Predictions,” a stand-alone app that will offer “event contracts,” prediction markets’ signature product.

Event contracts are built around yes/no questions such as “will the Penguins win?” They are technically options, which puts them under the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and makes them legal nationwide. That allows the firms to offer sports event contracts in states that haven’t legalized sports betting, such as Texas and California.

Kalshi and Polymarket’s NHL partnership “provides a tremendous opportunity for the broadest fan engagement,” Keith Wachtel, president of NHL Business, said in a press release.

But in a statement to Barron’s, Bill Miller, the president and CEO of the American Gaming Association, called the partnership “deeply concerning.”

“Contrary to the league’s claims, the future of these platforms is far from certain, evidenced by the legal proceedings in multiple states, the views of well over half of the nation’s attorneys general, and state regulators determining these platforms to be illegal,” Miller said. “No professional league should lend its brand to companies operating in defiance of state law and consumer protection norms.”

Other sports leagues have kept prediction markets at arms length. “Our view is that these platforms mimic sports betting,” Sabrina Perel, the NFL’s chief compliance officer, said during a media call this August, adding that players and personnel are barred from using them.

But in being the first to join with Kalshi and Polymarket, the NHL has broken the ice. Whether other sports leagues skate to where the puck is going remains to be seen.

Write to Nick Devor at nicholas.devor@barrons.com