Source: EconLog
by James B Bailey
“If you wanted to bet on the Super Bowl this past weekend, you had options. You may have bet with a friend. If you live in a state where it’s legal, you could have gone to a casino or used a casino’s app. Or, starting last year, you could have entered into an event contract using a Designated Contract Market regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). This is the same legal structure you would use to buy derivatives on the prices of traditional commodities like wheat, coffee, or pork bellies, now applied to trades like whether the Patriots will beat the Seahawks and what song will be played first at halftime. … As a bettor, I’m happy to see alternatives to the high-fee monopoly casino. As an economist, though, I worry.” (02/10/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/will-commodifying-sports-last