Super Bowl champion running back Saquon Barkley was forced to sell his stake in Polymarket by the NFL, he told Front Office Sports.
Barkley was reminded that NFL players are not allowed to invest in or endorse gambling or prediction market companies under league rules. And although the NFL maintains several sportsbook affiliates, it has not agreed to prediction market deals with companies such as Polymarket or Kalshi.
Saquon forced to sell Polymarket stake
The Philadelphia Eagles are on a downswing. Quarterback Jalen Hurts will miss the remainder of the year due to the presence of blood clots in his lungs, and a significant number of the team’s starters are either injured or have missed time. Barkley himself is fighting a hamstring injury that kept him out of two games and left him looking gimpy in his return on Oct. 26.
Sports event contracts at prediction market companies allow users to tie their opinions to money. Users can forecast the Eagles’ chances of winning their next game, finishing atop a struggling NFC East, or even winning their second Super Bowl in four years.
But because of the NFL’s bylaws, Barkley and other players cannot hold any investment in these companies.
“I was in it before, but no bueno,” Barkley said.
Numerous American sports leagues both have prediction market partners and allow their athletes to endorse or invest in prediction platforms. The NBA — which just announced on Monday it had reached agreements with Kalshi and Polymarket — the MLB, NHL and MLS all have deals with one or both of the companies.
New Philadelphia 76ers star LeBron James, arguably the most recognizable figure in American sports, has a deal with Polymarket that nets him a reported $15 annually as a paid affiliate. Polymarket’s talent lineup also includes stars such as Derek Jeter, Eli Manning and Sue Bird.
Miami Heat forward Giannis Antetokounmpo in Feb. became the first active NBA player to become a shareholder in Kalshi. Antetokounmpo is forbidden from trading and manipulating markets, and his stake is below the 1% maximum permitted by the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Waiting for clarity
Barkley said during the summer that Polymarket was one of the start-up companies in which he chose to invest. A 2025 report by The Profile also revealed that Barkley had actively invested his money in a variety of startups, including Anthropic, Anduril, Ramp, Cognition, Neuralink, Strike, and Polymarket.
The new interview with Front Office Sports indicates that he or NFL players as a whole were reminded that they must remain at an arm’s distance away from prediction markets.
The NFL banned players and staff from engaging with prediction markets on Aug. 26, 2025, just a couple of weeks before the regular season began. It clarified in early 2026 that players were also forbidden from taking ownership or investment interest in prediction companies.
Earlier this month, the NFL appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to rule if sports event contracts should be subjected to state or federal regulation. ESPN’s David Purdum reported that a league source told him that the NFL would accept a federal framework if it took the same approach as states do with sportsbooks.
Polymarket users currently believe the San Francisco 49ers (15%) are the most-likely team to win the upcoming Super Bowl. The Buffalo Bills (12%) and Kansas City Chiefs (10%) are seen as the next in line, followed by a close group of teams headlined by the defending-champion Seattle Seahawks (8%).
The Trade Handle Prediction Markets Take
Forcing Barkley and other NFL players to either avoid or sell ownership of prediction markets reflects the industry's ambiguity. After appealing to the country’s highest court, the league, like many states, is waiting to see whether prediction operators will continue to spread like wildfire under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's watch, or whether they will eventually go through state licensing processes.