PGA Tour on Prediction Markets: It’s ‘Complicated’

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The PGA Tour is comfortable waiting for the dust to settle on prediction markets before getting formally involved with the companies that have thrown the sports betting industry into a tailspin.

“Sports betting was going to happen either way. I don’t think we necessarily believe prediction markets are going to happen either way—yet,” PGA Tour VP of gaming Scott Warfield said when asked by Front Office Sports during a roundtable decision at the Players Championship. “I think that’s being figured out in the courts as we speak.”

The situation is “complicated,” Warfield admitted. The PGA Tour’s two official betting operators, DraftKings and FanDuel, have recently created their own prediction-market platforms, in addition to their traditional sportsbook offerings. DraftKings and FanDuel customers can buy PGA Tour event contracts (like they can with most sports), even though the tour doesn’t have official prediction market deals with them—although sports offerings are only available to users in states where sports betting is still illegal.

“We’re currently on the sidelines, learning, but have not pursued active commercial deals on the prediction market side,” Warfield said.

Integrity issues are a concern for the PGA Tour, which works with Genius Sports and IC360 to monitor potentially nefarious sports betting activity. The tour’s betting policy, which was updated a few months ago to include prediction markets, prohibits players, caddies, tournament staff, volunteers, and PGA Tour employees from placing wagers on any golf events. 

While LIV Golf star Bryson DeChambeau in January became the first athlete to partner with Kalshi, PGA Tour players are not allowed to sign sponsorship deals with prediction markets. 

Several player agents have been asking if and when that might change, PGA Tour VP of tournament administration Andy Levinson said.

The NHL was the first major sports league to embrace prediction markets, signing Kalshi and Polymarket as official partners. MLS and the UFC have deals with Polymarket. But the NFL, NBA, and MLB have yet to hop on the trend. 

For the PGA Tour, stricter regulation of prediction markets from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) “would help a lot,” Levinson said. 

“The CFTC is not a betting regulator, and yet they’re governing prediction markets right now,” Levinson said. “So, either they add a skill set or add some language to the CTFC that protects us a little bit better.” Traditional sports betting is regulated on a state-by-state basis, while sports event contracts fall under federal oversight by the CFTC, preempting state gambling laws.

Pending court cases are what the PGA Tour is watching most closely at the moment. 

“We are currently on hold, but that doesn’t mean our position will be like that forever,” Warfield said. … “If the CFTC continues to invest in monitoring capabilities, I could foresee a day where it’s not the Wild, Wild West. It’s very early.”