NHL’s Response To Blumenthal Inquiry: League ‘Confident’ It’s Protecting Integrity

Brant James photo

The NHL told InGame Monday that it is “extremely confident that we are taking all necessary steps to ensure the integrity and security of our games,” following a letter it and the NFL, NBA, NCAA, MLB, and MLS received Thursday from Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat. In the letters, Blumenthal sought information on league protocols for ensuring sports integrity amid the “further entrenchment of gambling and prediction markets in professional and college sports.”

Blumenthal requested a response from the leagues by May 1.

Each of the governing bodies queried by Blumenthal except the NCAA has at least one official partnership with a sportsbook. The NHL (Kalshi and Polymarket) and MLB (Polymarket) also have prediction market pacts.

InGame reached out to all of the leagues Blumenthal queried. The NFL referred InGame to a letter it sent to prediction market operators on March 29, which insisted that “There is no greater priority for the NFL than protecting the integrity of our games and the welfare of our players.”

In that letter, the NFL requested that prediction markets refrain from offering bets on events that are “easily manipulable by a single person,” such as missed kicks, player conduct, or replay outcomes.

MLB and the MLS refused comment on the letter. The NBA and NCAA did not respond, but the NCAA said in a statement to ESPN last week: “The Association looks forward to working with the senator to explain the work the NCAA has been doing to protect student-athletes from the rise of sports betting.”

Blumenthal: Deals provide ‘official blessing’

Blumenthal individualized memos to each of the league heads and said to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred:

“The MLB’s financial and operational partnership with Polymarket and FanDuel provides the league’s official blessing to gambling’s ugly takeover of sports and bolsters its marketing, wagering, and legitimacy. Fans are taking notice of this and its detrimental effects: according to polling, 47% of men under 30, one of the most likely groups to wager, say legal sports betting is a bad thing for society.”

Polymarket and MLB announced a partnership on March 19 that they touted as an integrity boon in conjunction with a new information-sharing pact with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The deal was received with skepticism in fan, media, and political circles.

The NHL has been the least affected league when it comes to gambling scandals. The NHL’s lone gambling incident since the repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in 2018 involved Ottawa Senators player Shane Pinto proxy betting through acquiantainces’ accounts and serving a 41-game suspension in 2023.

Blumenthal-letter-to-MLB

Key areas of concern

Blumenthal laid out seven areas of concern:

• League partnerships with state-licensed sportsbooks
• Assuring that partnerships with federally-sanctioned prediction markets do not violate state laws
• The type of data — including biometrics — that is shared with gambling operators
• Possible restrictions on prop bets
• Sports corruption prevention
• The prevention of gambling addiction
• Safeguarding athletes from abuse

NFL-DCM-Letter

Prediction markets have become a particular focus in Washington and with Blumenthal in particular after Polymarket’s international platform offered a market last week on the rescue of an American fighter pilot downed in Iran.