PRESS: Entain up on WSJ report of US prediction market sports ban plan

Mon, 23rd Mar 2026 12:13

(Alliance News) - Shares in Entain PLC leapt following a report in the Wall Street Journal on Monday that a pair of US senators are introducing legislation to prohibit entities regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission from listing contracts related to sporting events.

The WSJ report said this will include prediction-market exchanges Kalshi and Polymarket's US platform.

"The CFTC is greenlighting these markets and even promoting their growth," Senator Adam Schiff said. "It's time for Congress to step in and eliminate this backdoor which violates state consumer protections, intrudes upon tribal sovereignty and offers no public revenue."

The legislation is the first bipartisan Senate bill seeking to regulate prediction markets. The bill also seeks to prohibit "casino-style games" from being listed on the platforms, such as slot machine games, video poker, blackjack and bingo, the WSJ said.

While Kalshi and Polymarket offer yes-or-no wagers tied to everything from politics to the weather to pop culture, much of the trading activity is focused on professional and college sports, putting the platforms in competition with betting sites such as FanDuel, owned by Flutter Entertainment PLC, BetMGM, 50%-owned by Entain, and DraftKings Inc.

Shares in Entain, which owns Ladbrokes, rose 7.0% to 582.20 pence each in London on Monday. It was the best performing stock on the FTSE 100 which was up 0.4%.

"We expect a material positive share price reaction for Entain", commented Citi analyst Monique Pollard.

Flutter Entertainment was trading 8.4% higher at USD113.64 premarket in New York on Monday.

Nevada on Friday won a temporary restraining order to prevent prediction-market platform Kalshi from offering event-based contracts related to sports, elections and entertainment.

Just a few days earlier, Arizona filed criminal charges against the parent companies of Kalshi, accusing them of operating an illegal gambling business without a licence. Kalshi sent a letter to Arizona's attorney general imploring that the state withdraw the charges.

By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter

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