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The NFL regular season is about to start in early September, but all eyes are on Super Bowl LX, the end of the journey. It will kick off on February 8, 2026, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, where the San Francisco 49ers play their home games. And that’s pretty much all we know about it, for now. Who’s going to play at the halftime show? (Taylor Swift?) What epic TV commercials will be aired (and how much will 30 seconds of airtime cost?) are all unknown.

Another Super Bowl question that has sparked debate as the NFL season is about to kick off is how millions of US fans who want a piece of the action will back their favorite to win. Will they do it through sports betting, which is now legal in most US states, or will they buy event contracts, a new product that is exploding on the internet nowadays, with regulation and legality causing heated debates in courts across the country?

The partnership US betting powerhouse FanDuel announced with event-contract giant CME shows how the industry is trying to navigate an entirely different regulatory universe. The Super Bowl, being one of the largest betting events on the planet, will also determine how these two universes will collide or coexist.

Although many people think sports betting and events contracts are similar, they are two very different beasts.

A traditional sports bet is speculative and meant for entertainment, based on a zero-sum wager between the sportsbook and bettor. Although some bettors apply knowledge and strategy, it is considered gambling, with results being purely up to chance. At the same time, event contracts companies argue that their product has a legitimate hedging function that, although it bears risk, is considered investment risk undertaken for economic purposes.

When placing a bet with a sportsbook, the bettor’s relationship and risk are solely with the sportsbook, which manages the risks, sets up the betting lines, adjusts the odds, and pays out large wins or collects losses. Event contracts are traded between members of a community, facilitated by a centralized exchange platform that doesn’t take part in the trade but rather facilitates transactions between buyers and sellers. Whereas a bookmaker determines odds in traditional betting, event contracts on an exchange platform are priced by market demand.

A bet will typically be binary and held until it expires (or cashed out early). For example, you can bet on the Pittsburgh Steelers to win against the New York Jets in the first gameday of these two teams this season. You will then win or lose based on the odds that were offered when you locked the bet. Event contracts are tradable, and their pricing will fluctuate depending on market conditions. For example, you can buy a contract for “Joe Burrow to win season MVP” and sell it months later at a profit if his odds improve, or alternatively, offload it at a loss if Burrow gets injured and his odds diminish.

Another huge difference is how event contracts are regulated compared to traditional NFL betting. Since the US Supreme Court annulled PASPA (the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992), each US state can regulate its own sports betting market. The regulators’ primary focus is to ensure operator integrity, protect customers from fraud, and put in place mechanisms to prevent and treat problem gambling.

Event contracts are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a federal agency that is more focused on ensuring market integrity, preventing market manipulation, and protecting investors from a seismic market shift. It is rarely concerned with protecting individual investors from addiction and the prevention of loss from excessive trading.

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The introduction of event contracts isn’t an evolution of sports betting. It is a big bang, representing the creation of an entirely new marketplace that operates under a different legal framework and a different set of values. Traditional betting lives in the sphere of entertainment and individual player protection, whereas event contracts exist in the world of investment and financial-market transparency and integrity.

The outcome of this regulatory debate will determine whether betting on the NFL and other major league sports will stay within the sportsbook space or expand into financial trading markets.