Chicago startup FutureSports is working with the NHL and CME Group on a new class of futures contracts tied to the statistical performance of all 32 league teams, potentially giving investors, sponsors and fans a financial instrument that moves with what happens on the ice.
A hockey game could soon influence more than a scoreboard, a fantasy league or a sportsbook ticket.
Chicago-based FutureSports is building financial indexes around the performance of the NHL’s 32 teams, using official league statistics as the underlying data. CME Group plans to list futures contracts linked to those indexes, subject to regulatory review, opening a new route for traders to take positions on how teams perform.
The planned structure pushes professional sports into a corner of finance traditionally occupied by commodities, currencies and stock indexes.
Instead of trading a contract linked to oil, corn or the S&P 500, participants would be able to trade a contract whose value changes with the statistical performance of an NHL team.
CME is aiming to list the contracts on September 28, one day before the NHL season opener, although the launch remains subject to regulatory review.
How a hockey team becomes a financial index?
Each NHL team index is expected to begin at 7,500 points.
From there, its value would move during games using real-time statistical information. FutureSports plans to disclose the statistical categories used and explain how each one affects the index before trading begins.
That distinction matters because these contracts are being positioned differently from the yes-or-no products commonly associated with prediction markets.
A prediction contract generally settles around whether a specific event happens. The FutureSports model instead creates a moving index and allows traders to take positions based on changes in its value.
The contracts would also carry margin requirements, meaning participants put up collateral to maintain a position. That introduces leverage and makes the product structurally closer to conventional futures trading than a simple wager on a game result.
CME said the standard contracts would be sized at 10 times the value of the underlying NHL index. Smaller contracts designed for retail participation would be one-tenth of the index value. Trading is expected to be available around the clock.
The potential market goes beyond hockey fans
The most interesting part of the model may be who could use it.
Consider a season-ticket holder who has already committed significant money to a team. If that team performs poorly, the holder could theoretically take a short position in its index and attempt to offset part of the economic disappointment associated with that investment.
The same logic could extend to businesses whose revenue is influenced by a team’s fortunes.
Corporate sponsors, parking operators, retailers and even franchises themselves have been identified as possible users. A sponsor with substantial exposure to a team, for example, could potentially use futures as a hedge if performance deteriorates or an important player is injured.
That is the argument that could ultimately determine whether sports futures are viewed primarily as another speculative product or as a genuine risk-management tool.
NHL draws a clear line around player participation
The league’s role is limited to supplying the underlying statistics.
The NHL is not expected to participate in determining, calculating or governing the indexes. It also plans monitoring and other safeguards intended to protect the integrity of both games and the financial products connected to them.
Players, coaches and league staff will be prohibited from buying or selling the sports futures, NHL spokesperson Jen Neziol said.
That separation will be important because a financial market tied directly to sporting performance inevitably raises questions around access to information and game integrity.
Regulatory review remains the key hurdle
The planned September listing is not automatic.
FutureSports and CME still face review by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates the US derivatives market and can approve, reject or take no action on the proposal.
Sports-linked futures have encountered resistance before.
In 2020, Eris Exchange proposed futures products linked to sports and argued that businesses economically affected by NFL games should be able to hedge those risks. The CFTC raised concerns that the products amounted to sports gambling, and Eris ultimately withdrew its proposal.
The FutureSports structure is therefore entering a market with both commercial promise and a complicated regulatory history.
Its emphasis on continuously valued statistical indexes, rather than contracts that simply replicate the result of a game, could become central to how regulators assess the product.
CME’s retail push gives the plan another dimension
The sports-futures proposal is also arriving as CME expands its reach among individual traders.
The exchange now works with more than 130 retail broker partners, including Robinhood and Chicago-based EdgeClear. Retail has been CME’s fastest-growing customer segment over the past decade, and its number of retail participants topped 650,000 last year.
That audience is becoming increasingly comfortable entering futures markets directly rather than beginning with stocks or exchange-traded funds.
For CME, a sports-linked product could offer a familiar subject to a generation of investors that already follows live statistics, uses trading apps and is accustomed to markets that react instantly to new information.
Winning retail interest, however, is only one side of the equation.
Institutional investors account for 94% of CME’s trading volume, according to the reporting, and convincing those firms that NHL futures offer a compelling hedging or investment function may be a considerably larger test.
The risks remain very different from placing a small bet
Accessibility should not be confused with simplicity.
Futures are leveraged instruments. Margin can represent only a fraction of a contract’s total value, which means both profits and losses can build quickly.
Typical margin requirements can range from 3% to 10% of total contract value, and institutional participants in the sports contracts could be required to commit thousands of dollars. Smaller contracts would reduce that burden for retail traders, but they would not remove the financial risk attached to leverage.
That makes education particularly important if the product reaches investors whose first attraction is hockey rather than derivatives trading.
FutureSports co-founder Leigh Taylforth has indicated that the rollout will be deliberate, with education forming a central part of the company’s approach.
From Australia to Chicago’s derivatives market
FutureSports itself is relatively young.
Rhett Dinsdale and Leigh Taylforth started the company in 2022 while living in Australia. After repeatedly travelling to Chicago to work with their legal team, they moved the business to the city in 2023, drawn partly by its derivatives expertise, professional talent and sports culture.
Both founders previously worked in derivatives across market makers, investment banks and hedge funds. Their sports-industry network, however, had to be built from the ground up.
The company has since attracted backing associated with Marquee Ventures, Elysian Park Ventures, Robinhood and CME.
FutureSports is also looking beyond team indexes. The company plans indexes linked to selected NHL players, with CME expected to develop related contracts. Partnerships with other professional leagues are also being pursued, although Taylforth said NFL team indexes, including one for the Chicago Bears, will not arrive this season.
For now, the NHL will provide the first real test.
If regulators allow the contracts to move forward, September could mark the point at which the statistical performance of a professional sports team becomes something traders can follow not only on a scoreboard, but on a futures screen.
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