Prediction Markets and Sports Betting Press Newsrooms to Update Ethics Rules
17 September 2026
Newsrooms across the country are updating their ethics policies to address a growing conflict of interest: prediction markets and sports-betting partnerships. As these merged with mainstream coverage streams, and while financially strapped news organizations have leaned on gambling operators for funding, the Washington-based journalists at ProPublica explicitly banned staff from any wagering in prediction markets.
The rising popularity of prediction markets and sports betting has put news organizations in an increasingly tricky ethical position. With these betting platforms now moving from niche coverage into front-page news, an increasing number of outlets are receiving funding, data access, and promotions from influential gambling operators.
Restrictions vary by outlet. Per Poynter, ProPublica, NPR, and The New York Times, among others, are prohibiting staff from wagering. Similar bans are showing up at newspapers like the Kansas City Star, which explicitly forbids employees on gambling coverage from engaging in wagering or any appearance of conflict. Outlets with partnerships, like CNN and Dow Jones, are prohibiting staff from using work information for trades, though not barring staff from betting entirely.
As media outlets dive deeper into partnerships with gambling platforms, journalists are facing new challenges around conflicts of interest, insider knowledge, and whether betting on sports could influence their coverage. More and more newsrooms are explicitly addressing these issues in ethics updates.
However, these ethics updates may be too little, too late for some. Last February, Nieman Journalism Lab reported an accelerating trend of financially strapped news outlets opening up to gambling sponsorships and promotions. The article quoted concerns that gambling sponsorships can chill reporting because journalists may hesitate to publish material that would embarrass major advertisers. And Columbia Journalism Review reported that gambling in the press box is common in football and that few sports outlets bar reporters from betting within their beats.
That could change as a growing number of outlets clarify their expectations. Nieman Journalism Lab reported that The Athletic and The New York Times bar reporters covering leagues and teams from betting on those beats. And Univision has opened news-betting integration, including wagering odds on news segments.
But The New York Times was still publishing partner content from Sportsbetting and The Athletic was running tips and betting coverage alongside sports reporting. Gambling content is still being used, with some journalists digging into data and odds trends as a story element. Sports odds have become commonplace story elements in sports content.
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The New York Times and CNN have pointed to separate content management as their content firewall. Forbes, in teaming with prediction market project Calcu, allows reporters to bet on sports if they don’t cover those sports, previewing how outlets could handle prediction market betting.
Sports reins in how its political reporters use internal polls in coverage, to avoid exerting undue influence. There’s no indication yet that newsrooms could do the same for prediction markets. Odds remain commonplace.
Insiders say the kinds of partnerships ProPublica has shunned are creating tricky conflicts of interest that can’t always be addressed by new ethical edicts. One said explicit bans could be difficult to enforce in an industry where gambling is so common — especially at financially pressed outlets uncertain of their future.
Going forward, media ethics experts warn, prediction markets are likely to become an even greater challenge. Outlets like CNN, CNBC, and Dow Jones have already used odds in financial news. Similar trends could reshape politics and entertainment coverage with the rise of market-based prediction, especially if platforms like Calcu or Polymarket grow.
The concern is that sports betting and prediction markets are moving to the mainstream — and news organizations may be too financially strapped to create clear ethical guardrails to separate industry profits from journalistic integrity.
