NCAA urges federal regulators to suspend prediction markets that look a lot like gambling

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — The NCAA sent a letter Wednesday asking federal regulators to suspend prediction markets, which are trading sites that allow users to essentially bet on outcomes of games, for college sports.

NCAA President Charlie Baker sent the letter to the chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, urging him to put a halt to the offerings “until a more robust system with appropriate safeguards is in place.”

During his speech to the NCAA’s annual convention, Baker referenced one site that had been planning to start taking bets on where players might transfer “until we called them out and they backed down.”

The platforms are legal because they’re classified as financial trading platforms, not gambling websites.

The NCAA has been wrestling with gambling since a Supreme Court ruling lifted the nationwide ban on sports betting in 2018. In November, the NCAA passed, then quickly rescinded, a rule that would have allowed staff and athletes to bet on professional games.

The about-face came in the aftermath of the arrests of an NBA player and coach in a takedown of two sprawling gambling operations.

Baker’s letter listed a number of safeguards missing from prediction markets, including bans on prop betting — a form of wagering in which gamblers can bet on individual outcomes in games.

In recent months, the NCAA has ruled more than a dozen basketball players ineligible for manipulating their performance to influence results involving both point spreads and prop bets.