U.S. appeals court rules against prediction markets, sets up likely fight at Supreme Court

JUST IN: The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals rules against prediction markets Kalshi, Crypto. com and Robinhood, finding sports-related event contracts are bets, not swaps, creating a circuit split likely headed to the Supreme Court.

A federal appeals court just ruled that betting on sports is, in fact, betting. Groundbreaking stuff.

The Ninth Circuit, sitting in San Francisco, and you can see the courthouse here, ruled against Kalshi, Crypto dot com and Robinhood. All three wanted to block Nevada from shutting down their sports event contracts. The court said no, and its reasoning was one brutal line. The contracts were not swaps because they were sports bets.

Now, full disclosure, this is a prediction market channel, so yes, we're reading this one closely. The platforms argued the CFTC alone regulates event contracts, and the agency backed them, even suing nine states over it. Nevada's attorney general called the ruling a major victory, and forty four states are cheering along.

Back in April the Third Circuit ruled the exact opposite way. Two federal courts, two opposite answers, one industry worth billions hanging between them. That's a circuit split, and there's only one place it goes from here. The Supreme Court.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.