NCAA President Charlie Baker Blasts Kalshi's Bid To 'Offer Bets On Transfer Decisions'

Dec 18th, 2025 1:08 PM EST

The decision by Kalshi to self-certify potential trading markets on players who may enter the NCAA transfer portal sparked the ire of NCAA President Charlie Baker on Thursday.

Baker, a longtime critic of prediction markets, blasted the move.

“The NCAA vehemently opposes college sports prediction markets. It is already bad enough that student-athletes face harassment and abuse for lost bets on game performance, and now Kalshi wants to offer bets on their transfer decisions and status — this is absolutely unacceptable and would place even greater pressure on student-athletes while threatening competition integrity and recruiting processes. Their decisions and future should not be gambled with, especially in an unregulated marketplace that does not follow any rules of legitimate sports betting operators," Baker wrote in a post on X.

Baker went public with his opposition to prediction markets last April when asked about the matter by bookies.com at the Associated Press Sports Editors Commissioners Meetings in New York. At that time, he called them a “gray area” and “part of the problem” when it came to creating sources of harassment for college athletes.

Kalshi earlier Thursday said in a post on X it had no plans to offer any contracts on players who may or may not enter the portal.

We certify markets all the time that we do not end up listing. We have no immediate plans to list these contracts.
Like all markets on Kalshi, users with material nonpublic information would be prohibited from trading on potential transfer portal markets.
We have in-house and third-party surveillance systems that monitor for suspicious activity and if necessary, we refer cases to the CFTC for enforcement

@KalshiNewsroom

In a response to bookies.com, Kalshi offered the following examples of certified markets it has yet to offer: "L2CHAINS, about the amount of dependent blockchains a certain Layer 1 blockchain will have; CAWATER, about the amount of water the state of California will allocate to the state water project; and DEEXTINCTSUCCESS, about whether or not another animal will come out of extinction."

Baker signed the Massachusetts Sports Wagering Act of 2022 into law when he was governor of the Commonwealth. Gaming laws in Massachusetts ban individual props on college sports, and prohibits wagering on colleges located within the Bay State during regular-season games. It does offer a carve out for those schools during tournaments.

Prediction Markets Continue Court Battles

Prediction markets have seen a spectacular rise in both trading volume and cultural impact this year. They began offering sports event contracts at the time of the Super Bowl, after giving themselves self-certification. They have since begun to offer so-called “combo” trades, which are like parlays offered by sportsbooks. Between 80% to 90% of their trading volume, depending on the platform, comes from sports events contracts.

Meanwhile, the prediction market operators continue their legal battle on multiple fronts against both state jurisdictions and Native American Tribes.

Among the states currently in court over sports events contracts: Nevada, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Maryland and New Jersey. Meanwhile, on Dec. 5, the Arizona Department of Gaming notified Underdog that it plans to revoke its daily fantasy sports contest license in the state. Underdog operates a prediction market that trades in sports event contracts via Crypto.com. Underdog pulled the plug on its sports betting operation in North Carolina this week and plans to soon offer its prediction product in that state.

NCAA President Charlie Baker Blasts Kalshi's Bid To 'Offer Bets On Transfer Decisions'

Kalshi: No Plans To Offer Portal-Related Trades

Prediction Markets Continue Court Battles

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