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Saquon Barkley was forced to divest his equity stake in Polymarket because NFL players are not allowed to invest in or endorse gambling or prediction-market companies under league rules, the Eagles running back told Front Office Sports.
A profile of Barkley revealed last September that Polymarket was among his startup investments. But at some point between then and this past summer, the league told players they are not allowed to have financial interests in prediction-market platforms.
“I am not in that right now,” Barkley told FOS. “I am not allowed to be in that.”
The NFL informs players before the start of each season of any new rules around “what you can and can’t do,” with respect to endorsements, investments, and training, Barkley said. There’s a ban on doing business with prediction markets, including endorsement deals or investments. “So I kinda had to get out of that,” he said.
“I was in it before, but no bueno,” Barkley told FOS.
A source familiar with the NFL’s policy told FOS earlier this year that the league’s prohibition on promoting and investing in sportsbooks extends to prediction markets, but the league did not comment at that time when asked whether Barkley’s investment in Polymarket was a violation.
Polymarket declined to comment for this story. The NFL on Wednesday confirmed the prohibition on investments in and promotion of sportsbooks and prediction markets but declined to comment on Barkley’s specific situation.
In 2015, the NFLPA announced a licensing partnership that allowed DraftKings the right to employ active NFL players for in-product and promotional campaigns. But at that time, DratKings was still only a daily fantasy sports company. It received its first state gambling license in 2018, following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a federal prohibition on sports betting.
NFL Still Keeping Its Distance From Prediction Markets
An NFLPA spokesperson told FOS in January that the league “views prediction markets as gambling entities, so players are not allowed to be an endorser or brand ambassador for a company like Kalshi or Polymarket under the gambling policy.”
Although the league has official sports betting partners in DraftKings, FanDuel, and Fanatics, it has not yet embraced prediction markets, and barred prediction-market Super Bowl ads last year. It recently urged the Supreme Court to take up a case centered around the issue of sports event contracts, and said that, for now, it believes prediction markets should be regulated at the state, not federal, level.
Despite recurring controversies around prediction markets, the other big leagues are all in business with them now.
The NBA just this week announced Kalshi and Polymarket as its “preferred prediction market partners.” (The deal does not apply to the WNBA.) MLB reached an exclusive deal with Polymarket in March that FOS reported is worth up to $300 million over four years. MLS announced an agreement with Polymarket in January. The NHL was first among the major leagues to partner with prediction markets, announcing deals with Kalshi and Polymarket last October.
Barkley was among the first athletes to have a professional relationship with a prediction-market platform, but over the last year it has become far more common for players to endorse or invest in companies. In the NBA, Giannis Antetokounmpo is an investor in Kalshi, while LeBron James made a deal with Polymarket that FOS reported will pay him $15 million per year. Golf star Bryson DeChambeau struck a deal with Kalshi.
The NBA is not restricting its players from endorsing or investing in prediction markets, but players are not allowed to promote NBA-related event contracts, a source familiar with the matter previously told FOS. James’s deal with Polymarket will focus on promoting football. NBA players are allowed to hold small, passive interests in sports betting or fantasy companies, but cannot promote NBA-related bets.
Former NFL stars Marshawn Lynch and Richard Sherman are among a pile of famous athletes who quietly invested in Kalshi in April through a family office platform called Factory Holdings.
In 2023, NFL agent Blake Baratz told FOS the league’s prohibition on players promoting sports betting was “fairly hypocritical.”
