NBA Gets Cozy with Prediction Markets

The planet’s most popular pro basketball league, the NBA, announced partnerships with prediction market giants Kalshi and Polymarket, as major sports leagues continue to embrace the event contract space despite regulatory fights.

Plus, we look at the Philadelphia 76ers becoming the first NBA franchise to announce a prediction market partnership, hip hop legend Jay-Z’s Super Bowl Halftime opener market, and fry up previews for Saturday’s #20 Iowa-#23 Northwestern and #8 BYU-#3 Utah NCAAF games and Sunday’s São Paulo Grand Prix and Buccaneers-Bears NFL clash from Chicago.

On Monday, October 25, the National Basketball Association (NBA) announced partnerships with leading prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket, as well as an expanded deal with online sportsbook DraftKings. Novig and FanDuel are also rumored to become NBA partners.

The world’s most popular professional basketball league is the latest sports league in the US to team up with the industry following the National Hockey League (NHL), Major League Baseball (MLB), and Major League Soccer (MLS), the latter of which has a deal with Polymarket.

The two most popular and lucrative prediction markets, Kalshi and Polymarket, will get official access to NBA league data and intellectual property rights, allowing the sites to use trademarks and logos on their websites instead of generic art logos.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) head honcho Mike Selig announced the new relationship on Twitter, and the league just tipped off its 2026-27 NBA Regular Season last month. Three of the four major US sports now have deals with PMs, with the NFL the lone holdout.

The agreements call for “significant integrity” protections for the league’s markets in the space, including which types of specific event contracts can be listed. The two will also share information on any suspicious trades to help maintain integrity between them.

In a press release, Scott Kaufman-Ross, head of media distribution for the NBA, said, “Protecting the integrity of the game is our top priority. These partnerships represent an important step in establishing a framework that creates new opportunities to engage our fans.”

Being dubbed the “preferred prediction market exchanges” of the NBA is another accomplishment for the New York City-based prediction market giants Kalshi and Polymarket, and it will make their ads a little more common during NBA games.

With NBA data helping settle trades, it’s a cleaner look and also better for the prediction markets as they surf into the high waves of the unpredictability of a potential Supreme Court ruling on the Sports event contracts.

The Philadelphia 76ers became the first team in the National Basketball Association (NBA) to sign a partnership with a prediction market, announcing on Monday, November 2, that it is partnering with Kalshi, following a recently unveiled deal between the NBA itself and Kalshi and Polymarket.

This agreement will give Kalshi visibility at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, and the New York City-based events contract exchange will also sponsor a season-long Beat the Pro contest on the platform where one lucky person will have the chance to win $76,000 in an on-court competition.

The world is a goddamn circus. Make sure you have enough peanuts these days, Bubba.

Owned by Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, the 76ers franchise has made a gallant effort under CEO Tad Brown, president Mike Gansey, and VP Jameer Nelson over the last six months to improve the quality of the product on the hardwood and its relationships in the business world.

Co-founded by Josh Harris and David Blitzer, CNBC ranks HBSE the #3 Most Valuable Sports Empire ($14.6 billion). Besides the 76ers (NBA), it also owns the Washington Commanders (NFL), New Jersey Devils (NHL), and Crystal Palace FC (EPL), as well as the Prudential Center (Newark).

It started in May when Philadelphia parted ways with president Daryl Morey, promoted Gansey to that role, and named Bob Myers interim lead, with Nelson—a Saint Joseph’s (Philadelphia) product—also promoted to the crucial VP-General Manager position.

The 76ers drafted Labaron Philon Jr. (ALA) #22 in the NBA Draft on July 3 and then the roster changes started. Three days later, Philly traded for Jaylen Brown (BOS) and unloaded Paul George before signing superstar LeBron James (LAL) for two years and adding Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

With a healthy C Joel Embiid and PG Tyrese Maxey, Philadelphia is suddenly a real threat in the Eastern Conference—the 76ers started the new 2026-27 NBA Regular Season off 6-1—and now with this landmark deal with Kalshi and LBJ and Brown in town, things are really looking up.

A fun market that marries Sports and culture, and one that's gained popularity over the years, is the first song performed at the NFL’s Super Bowl Halftime show in February. Last year, Bad Bunny was the act with his first song "Tití Me Preguntó." Kalshi had over $100 million in the market.

This NFL season, Super Bowl LXI will be at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on Sunday, February 14, 2027, with Jay-Z recently announced as the halftime act for the annual game, which pits the champions of the AFC and NFC and generates more revenue than some small companies.

At Kalshi, in the (What Will Be) Jay-Z's Halftime Opener? (Song at the Super Bowl) market, the favorite song is Public Service Announcement (interlude) (35%) followed by Empire State of Mind (5%), Big Pimpin (5%), Run This Town (5%) and Umbrella (5%), which may mean Rihanna.

Next in trading order were:

The reason PSA (interlude) is the favorite in this market is obvious to fans of the Brooklyn-based hip hop legend. It was trading at 21 cents (‘Yes’) on October 28, then was at 24 cents less than 12 hours later, so expect steam on this one. Many know the song, but not the title.

Public Service Announcement (aka “My Name is HOV”) is the 10th song on Jay-Z’s eighth studio album The Black Album (2003). It serves as an interlude on the record, which includes hits like Encore (Kanye West), Dirt Off Your Shoulder, Moment of Clarity (Eminem), and 99 Problems.

The song (below) is a great choice—and has risen 11 cents since I first wrote this Culture section, from 24 cents to 35 cents—because it’s short and a great audio appetizer, and some homework shows where it can sit in a short mini-concert medley of Hov songs. This ain’t a movie dog.

When Jay-Z played at SoFi on his JAŸ-Z 30 Tour on October 24, 2026, Public Service Announcement was the 36th of 37 songs, and a scan of the 2026 Jay-Z setlists shows he didn’t open up with it. When Jay-Z did a Saturday Night Live medley on May 9, 2010, the song was tucked in the middle.

Can the Purple Cats make the CFP? The game against Iowa (6-2, 3-2 Big Ten) at the new Ryan Field (FieldTurf) in Evanston, Illinois, on Saturday (FOX, 7:30 EST/6:30 CST/4:30 PST) will see if QB Aidan Chiles and Northwestern (6-2, 3-2 Big Ten) can stay in the race during their dream season.

The Hawkeyes got off to a wonderful start, going 4-0 before losing to #5 Ohio State and then losing two weekends later to Minnesota as the Golden Gophers snatched Floyd of Rosedale and made him into 63 BLTs. The Wildcats lost to #5 Indiana before stumbling last week at Oregon.

Kalshi traders have Chiles and Northwestern (52%) as favorites in the Iowa vs. Northwestern showdown, with Iowa (48%) needing the victory more than the hosts. DraftKings has Northwestern as 2.5-point favorites over Iowa with the Total at 45.5 (NU -130, IOWA +110).

Iowa is 6-4 SU in the last 10 meetings in Big Ten play, but Northwestern is 6-4-0 ATS, and this program has improved vastly—like Indiana—after decades of poor play. The Under went 6-4-0 in those games and 4-2-0 in the last 6. None of those were played at Ryan Field.

The Hawkeyes also have a 4-game win streak in the series (2021-2024) and have won in their last 3 straight trips to Evanston, which borders Chicago on Lake Michigan to the north. Iowa will want a slower-paced game here, but Wildcats QB Chiles will have a lot to say about that and is a talent.

After falling to Oregon in Eugene in Week 9, Northwestern needs the win here to stay in the CFP race, but after the way the Hawkeyes looked in humiliating and exposing Wisconsin (30-0), Iowa is also now eyeballing its own dream season. The Hawkeyes may win in a low-scoring Big Ten game.

One of the biggest games on the NCAAF Week 10 schedule pits #8 BYU Cougars (7-1, 4-1 Big 12) and Beehive State rivals #3 Utah (8-0, 5-0 Big 12) in the Holy War at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah relatively early on Saturday (ABC, 12 EST/11 CST/10 MST/9 PST).

This game could have shaped up to be a battle of the unbeatens, but BYU was upset at Central Florida (39-31), and QB Bear Bachmeier and the Cougars are still in the running for a CFP spot but probably need this game more than the Utes. Both may get berths as Big 12 champ and runner-up.

At prediction market Kalshi, traders have QB Devon Dampier and host and unbeaten Utah as 63% favorites in the BYU vs. Utah Holy War, with BYU trading at 37% on Monday, November 2. DraftKings has Utah as 3-point chalk over BYU with the Total at 47.5 (UTAH -205, BYU +170).

Utah is 7-3 SU in the last 10 meetings of the Holy War, but BYU is 6-4-0 ATS and has won the last 3 SU, twice at home in Provo. The Under went 6-4-0 in those games and 5-2-0 the last 7, but the Over is 4-1-0 the last 5 at Rice-Eccles in SLC (45, 63, 62, 43 points scored).

If you ask BYU, the Utes lead the all-time series 59-34-4, but if you ask Utah, it has 62-37-4. Most of those meetings came over a decades-long span when the two schools played in different leagues, including the Skyline, Western Athletic (WAC), Mountain West (MWC), and Pac-12 conferences.

The loser here won’t be dead in the CFP battle, but the Utes (37.4 PPG, T-#14) can handle a loss better than the Cougars. The Utes defense (15.9 PPG, #15) is a strength, and with so much at stake, a low-scoring game may evolve. The weather calls for Cloudy skies with temps 47-52° F.

The rest of the 2026 F1 season will be anticlimactic, with Italian rookie Kimi Antonelli wrapping up the title at the Mexico City Grand Prix at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City on November 1 in Round 19, with AKA12 becoming the youngest to ever win the championship (20).

In Round 20 of the Formula One season in the São Paulo Grand Prix at the Interlagos Circuit in São Paulo, Brazil on Sunday (TV—AppleTV, Streaming—F1 TV App, 12 ET/11 CT/9 PT), drivers begin to race out the last three events of the season on a positive note and without incident.

Those last three races on the F1 calendar this year are the Las Vegas Grand Prix (November 21, Round 21), the Qatar Grand Prix (November 29, Round 22), and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (December 6, Round 23). The 2027 F1 season starts on March 18 with the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The entire MSC Cruises São Paulo Grand Prix weekend schedule: Free Practice 1 (10:30 am ET) and Free Practice 2 (2 pm) on Friday, Free Practice 3 (9:30 am) and Qualifying (1 pm) on Saturday before the Main Race on Sunday on the 15-turn, 2.677-mile (4.309 km) South American track.

The market at online sportsbook bet365 for the São Paulo Grand Prix Main Race Winner on Sunday sees legend Max Verstappen (+125) as the favorite, with newly crowned champion Kimi Antonelli (+225), Charles Leclerc (+700), and Lewis Hamilton (+800) following.

The longshots on Sunday are Lando Norris (+1400)—last year’s winner in the 2025 São Paulo Grand Prix—George Russell (+1400), Isack Hadjar (+2800), Oscar Piastri (+5000), Arvid Lindblad (+40000), Pierre Gasly (+40000), and Liam Lawson (+40000).

➤In the next edition of The Prediction Report, we will look at the much-anticipated #1 Miami vs. #5 Notre Dame NCAAF showdown in South Bend on Saturday, Will two SpaceX Starships Dock Before 2028, Which Company Has the Best AI Model at the End of November?, and preview #11 Tennessee-#12 Kentucky NCAAF on Saturday, the NFL Madrid Game and NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race on Sunday, and the Bills at Vikings game on MNF.