WilmerHale publishes client alert guiding sports executives through prediction market risks
Law firm WilmerHale published a client alert titled 'What Sports Executives Need to Know About Prediction Markets' on May 26, advising sports leagues and teams on the risks posed by prediction markets operating outside the legalized sports betting framework those executives historically navigated through state regulators. The advisory content, published on the firm's website and noted by legal monitor JD Supra, flags that prediction markets now intersect with — but stand apart from — the regulated sports betting structure. It does not prescribe specific legal action but positions the firm to counsel sports industry clients navigating overlapping federal and state regulatory environments amid active litigation and enforcement across multiple jurisdictions.
WilmerHale's alert signals that sports leagues seeking outside counsel on prediction markets now have a ready-conflicted advisory path toward compliance frameworks, even as litigation in Rhode Island, Tennessee, Minnesota and Wisconsin churns. Any league that retains the firm gains early positioning against the same state-regulatory overreach that Kalshi's Coalition for Prediction Markets is fighting federally.
WilmerHale's advisory joins a running stack of legal maneuvering that now includes state-filed lawsuits in Rhode Island, Tennessee, Minnesota and Wisconsin, federal preemption tests in multiple circuits, and the just-formed Coalition for Prediction Markets uniting Kalshi with Coinbase, Robinhood, Crypto.com and Underdog.