The NCAA submitted a formal request to a federal regulatory body on Wednesday, seeking to halt prediction markets from facilitating trades on college sports until more comprehensive safeguards are established.

In a letter addressed to the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the agency responsible for the oversight of prediction markets, NCAA president Charlie Baker expressed concerns regarding the expansion of these markets and their potential risks to the welfare of student-athletes and the integrity of sports competition.

“I strongly urge you to suspend collegiate sports prediction markets until a more robust framework with appropriate safeguards is developed,” Baker stated. He highlighted several critical areas that require enhanced protections, including age restrictions, advertising limitations, rigorous integrity monitoring, the engagement of national governing bodies such as the NCAA, constraints on proposition bets, harm reduction resources.