AGA Study Says Voters Want Sports Event Contracts Regulated Like Online Sportsbooks

^{Sportsbook apps including FanDuel, DraftKings, and ESPN Fantasy are regulated in several states, and voters want sports contracts regulated similarly, according to AGA’s new study. (Photo: Koshiro K / Alamy)} 

A new study from the American Gaming Association (AGA) found that most American voters view sports prediction contracts as gambling and want sports prediction markets to be regulated like other forms of sports betting.

The study comes on the heels of AGA research that found similar views on sweepstakes casinos, with that survey finding that 90 percent of sweepstakes casinos users consider using them to be a form of gambling. 

AGA Finds Broad Support for Gaming Regulators to Handle Sports Contracts

Currently, 38 states and the city of Washington, D.C. offer regulated sports betting. According to the AGA study, 70 percent of voters say that prediction platforms like Kalshi are exploiting loopholes in the law and effectively acting as unlicensed sportsbooks.

“This research has made it clear: Americans know a sports bet when they see one – and they expect prediction markets offering sports event contracts to be held to the same rules and consumer safeguards as every other state-regulated sportsbook,” AGA President and CEO Bill Miller said in a statement.

According to the study, 80 percent of Americans believe that sports event contracts should be regulated like online gambling, with 65 percent saying they want gaming regulators to oversee the practice rather than the CFTC.

Predictive Markets Becoming Big Player in Sports Gaming Industry

The idea of predictive markets where users can trade contracts on future outcomes is nothing new -- the Iowa Electronic Markets have existed for academic purposes since 1988. But the concept has come to mainstream attention in the past year.

That began in September 2024, when Kalshi began to offer contracts on which major party would control the House of Representatives and Senate after the 2024 US elections. That intensified an ongoing fight between the platform at the CFTC. They argued that offering contracts on election outcomes was no different that election betting, which is illegal in all jurisdictions in the United States. 

Ultimately, Kalshi won that battle, which ended for good when the CFTC dropped its appeal in May 2025. Perhaps emboldened by that win – or the looser regulatory framework promised by the administration of President Donald Trump – Kalshi and other prediction markets began offering contracts on sporting events as well.

That immediately caught the attention of state regulators such as the Nevada Gaming Control Board, which slapped Kalshi with a cease and desist order when it began offering sports-based contracts in the state. However, tribal gaming operators have also pushed back on those offerings. Although Kalshi says it has had productive conversations with Native American tribes, tribal officials have painted a very different picture.

But with the CFTC’s backing, more companies are looking to get into the prediction market business. In August, FanDuel partnered with CME Group to establish its own prediction market offering. And earlier this month, global giant Polymarket said it had been “given the green light to go live” by the CFTC, signaling a coming return to the United States market.

The AGA survey was conducted by YouGov, which polled a nationally representative sample of 2,025 registered voters from Aug. 1-8, 2025. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 2 percent.