There may soon be another new way to financially expose yourself to the ups and downs of your most beloved or hated sports franchises.
Those new sports-related financial products would be the exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that Volatility Shares is now proposing to offer.
While not yet live and still subject to changes, recently filed prospectuses say the ETFs would invest in sports-related futures contracts that are influenced by indices tracking National Hockey League teams.
- Proposed NHL-themed ETFs would give investors exposure to team performance through CME futures contracts tied to statistical indexes tracking NHL teams.
- The products are still awaiting regulatory review and arrive as sports prediction markets face growing scrutiny from gambling regulators.
- CME and FutureSports argue the contracts could help businesses and investors manage sports-related risks, although individual investors could also trade them.
The idea is relatively simple: FutureSports creates an index that measures an NHL team's performance using statistical data. CME Group then offers futures contracts tied to that index, allowing investors to take positions based on how the index performs. Volatility Shares' proposed ETFs would give investors another way to gain exposure to those futures by buying shares of a fund that buys those futures.
For example, documents filed Friday by Volatility Shares for its proposed Toronto Maple Leafs ETF says it "seeks to provide investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to the performance of futures contracts on the CME FSPI NHL Toronto Maple Leafs Index."
According to the prospectus, the fund will normally aim to invest at least 80% of its net assets in “Maple Leafs Index-Linked Instruments,” which will (perhaps chiefly) include the futures contracts tied to the Leafs index.
The index uses 55 statistics and results to assign points to the team throughout the season. It starts at 7,500 before the season and rises or falls as the team's performance changes. Its value resets to 7,500 after the postseason.
New filing for NHL hockey ETFs from VolShares, which will track the performance of 32 dif teams (eg the Boston Bruins ETF) which will be based on how the team does (eg wins, losses in reg season and playoffs) using a special team index calc that has futures contract on it. Wow.… https://t.co/HbHKzh9idX pic.twitter.com/sPaoMjscPD
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) August 14, 2026
The ETF is proposing to buy cash-settled Leafs index contracts, meaning the fund receives cash when the contracts increase in value and pays cash when they decline. The fund would then sell those contracts as they get close to expiring and replace them with newer ones with a later expiration date.
Investors, meanwhile, would buy and sell shares of the ETF on an exchange. The ETF's share price would fluctuate based on the value of its holdings and market demand.
“The Fund does not invest directly in prediction markets, event contracts or other instruments that provide exposure to individual sporting event or season-long outcomes or to investments that provide exposure to the financial performance of individual sports teams or leagues,” the prospectus says. “Instead, the Fund seeks to benefit from increases in the price of Maple Leafs Index Futures Contracts.”
The contracts and the indices are the products of a partnership between derivatives giant CME Group and index administrator FutureSports, which is partnered with the NHL.
CME announced on Aug. 11 that it would launch the first-ever index-based hockey futures Sept. 28, pending regulatory review. Those contracts will track FutureSports' indices, which will be informed and move based on official NHL statistics.
"The performance of the indexes will be calculated using systematic methodologies where point allocations follow transparent statistical frameworks - adding points for positive actions and subtracting for negative plays or setbacks," a press release said.
Puck portfolios
In other words, the proposed ETFs would be another way to gain exposure to the NHL futures contracts. Investors could also buy those contracts directly.
At any rate, it looks like early days for the ETFs. Volatility Shares told Covers on Monday that it's unable to comment on the proposed products at this time.
Moreover, the prospectus notes that neither the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) nor the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have approved or disapproved the ETFs, “or passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this prospectus.”
Nevertheless, the ETFs and the contracts they’re tied to suggest financial firms are increasingly interested in offering investors a way to "bet" on sports.
It also suggests these firms are finding new and innovative ways to meet a demand from investors for these types of products, which could expand to cover additional sports leagues. Notably, FutureSports is aiming to strike "a series of exclusive partnerships with global professional sporting leagues" for its indices, according to a press release.
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Watch your language
That there exists a demand for trading and betting on sports is hardly surprising. The billions bet via state-regulated sportsbooks and, more recently, traded via federally regulated prediction market sites make that pretty clear.
However, it’s also likely that all of the parties involved in the NHL index-related products would reject the label of “sports betting.” They also appear to be steering clear of the term "prediction market," and there may be good reason for that, too.
Sports prediction markets are under a lot of heat right now from state gambling regulators, who believe the trading of sports-related event contracts is just sports betting by another name. The lawsuits have been flying, with new complaints filed, arguments made, or decisions rendered seemingly every day.
While prediction market operators and the CFTC maintain the business of buying and selling "yes" or "no" contracts tied to sports is federally regulated, and beyond state gambling laws, numerous states are arguing otherwise and are seeking to shut down the trading of sports-related event contracts.
Those contracts have been the main driver of growth for the prediction market industry, but their legality remains hotly contested in court.
Again, Volatility Shares' prospectus says its ETFs (which may not launch for another two-and-a-half months at the earliest) aren't investing directly in sports prediction markets. Even so, the prospectus also includes nearly 50 different "risk" disclosures for potential investors, one of which is "Gaming and State Regulatory Litigation Risk."
That section warns about potential legal challenges brought by state attorneys general or gambling commissions "asserting that such instruments (the futures contracts) constitute regulated gambling or gaming activity under state law, notwithstanding that such contracts are listed on a CFTC-regulated exchange."
New York tells Kalshi to stop with the prediction markets, CFTC tells Kalshi to go. In Michigan, a similar order wound up being moot, so what happens here? https://t.co/Pl6dIfdOjd
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) August 11, 2026
Interestingly, CME Group CEO Terry Duffy has been a critic himself of some sports prediction markets, calling them "gambling" during his company’s second-quarter earnings call.
FanDuel-owner Flutter Entertainment then recently announced that, in coordination with CME, it is moving all of FanDuel Predicts’ sports and novelties contracts to Crypto.com’s exchange.
However, CME and FutureSports are trying to show there is broad utility for their contracts and indices, even if retail investors may buy them for other reasons.
“Potential participants who may want to use the contracts to hedge include third-party vendors, sponsors and endorsers, insurers, and sports apparel manufacturers,” FutureSports said Aug. 4. “Asset managers, pension funds and professional trading firms are expected to participate in the contracts and contribute to liquidity in this new uncorrelated asset class. Individual investors will also be able to participate in the first-of-their-kind trading vehicles.”
The same press release also said the NHL has set up “layered monitoring and other protections” to ensure the integrity of its games and the financial products tied to them.
