The US college sports community has sounded the alarm on prediction market contracts. Recently, relevant organizations submitted a joint letter to the federal futures regulator, directly pointing out that the currently popular sports prediction contracts have serious regulatory loopholes—these tools are essentially equivalent to sports betting but completely lack the protective measures that traditional licensed platforms must have: age verification for minors is ineffective, advertising lacks constraints, and transaction manipulation monitoring is inadequate.

What is even more concerning is the design of contracts targeting individual athletes. Once these granular prediction products are launched, they are highly likely to become tools for harassment and threats against individuals—imagine what could happen when contract prices fluctuate directly related to the performance of a specific athlete.

The surge of prediction market platforms like Polymarket, while demonstrating the potential of Web3 financial innovation, also exposes significant shortcomings in risk management and user protection within the industry. As regulatory attention intensifies, the future direction of these products warrants close market monitoring.