CME Group Sets Launch of Baseball Futures on Team Performance Indexes

CME Group said in an October 8 announcement that it will launch what it describes as the world’s first Baseball futures on October 12, 2026, pending regulatory review. The new contracts will track CME FutureSports Performance Indexes (CME FSPI) that include statistics on the 30 professional baseball teams, beginning with the 2026 Postseason and the four clubs in the League Championship Series.

CME Group Baseball futures will be available in standard-sized contracts valued at 10 times the underlying CME FSPI MLB indexes and in micro-sized contracts at one-tenth the value of those indexes. The exchange said participants will be able to trade live around the clock, allowing for immediate positions on a regulated exchange with central clearing safeguards, transparent pricing and equal market access. The contracts are listed on and subject to the rules of CME.

“CME Group provides price discovery and risk management across every major investable asset class, and we see an opportunity to bring investing and hedging discipline to the business of professional baseball,” said Tim McCourt, Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Equities, FX and Alternative Products at CME Group. McCourt said the contracts being developed with FutureSports will be built on what he called robust indexes using Official League Data, adding that regulated exchange-traded products deliver transparency and integrity.

Contract Terms and Index Methodology

The baseball contracts enter a product line for which CME Group publishes detailed specifications on its Sports Index futures page, currently built around 32 micro and 32 standard NHL index futures. In that published framework, micro contracts are sized at $0.10 times the index and standard contracts at $10 times the index, with a tick size of one index point valued at $0.10 per tick on micro contracts and $10 per tick on standard contracts. At an index value of 7,500, CME lists approximate notional values of $750 for a micro contract and $75,000 for a standard contract.

Trading in a contract terminates at 9:00 a.m. Central time on the expiration date, settlement is financial, and final settlement is published on a T+1 basis after termination because of potential league restatements. CME lists weekly, monthly and annual cycles for micro sports contracts and monthly and annual cycles for standard contracts.

CME Group said CME FSPI structure official sports statistics into rules-based, benchmark financial metrics, with index performance calculated using systematic methodologies in which point allocations follow transparent statistical frameworks, adding points for positive actions and subtracting points for negative plays or setbacks. The company states the methodologies align with the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) Principles for Financial Benchmarks and are supported by published governance and oversight procedures.

FutureSports, the index administrator behind the benchmarks, states on its website that each FSPI starts from a standardized base value of 7,500 before the start of each season and moves up or down based on officially reported statistics from every game, in real time while games are being played, throughout the regular season and postseason. Official End of Day Index Values are published at 9:00 a.m. Central time on the following calculation day under the FSPI Index Calculation and Publication Schedule.

The MLB index values published on the FutureSports site, which are dated as of October 7, 2026, showed Milwaukee at 11,828.50, up 0.88 percent versus the prior Official End of Day Index Value, and the Los Angeles Dodgers at 10,961.00, up 0.62 percent. An illustrative graphic on the site shows the CME FSPI MLB Chicago Cubs Index at 8,678.00 for the 2026 season through September 24, 2026, up 15.7 percent; FutureSports labels the graphic as illustrative.

Existing Sports Futures Market

CME Group’s product page for the line describes FutureSports as an independent index administrator transforming professional and college sports statistics into rules-based, benchmark financial indexes that may be referenced by exchange-listed financial products. FutureSports lists John and Linda Henry of Fenway Sports Group as its investors.

CME already offers CFTC-regulated NHL Sports Index futures tracking all 32 teams, developed in partnership with FutureSports and tradable day or night and during the offseason. A price table on the product page, timestamped 1:52 p.m. Central time on October 8, 2026, showed the Micro Anaheim Ducks Index at 7,602, down 0.01 percent; the Micro Carolina Hurricanes Index at 7,676, up 0.42 percent; the Micro Florida Panthers Index at 7,662, up 0.30 percent; and the Micro Tampa Bay Lightning Index at 7,638, up 0.58 percent, with each of the four monthly micro contracts showing a price recording volume of one contract.

In a published FAQ, CME Group says Sports Index futures can be used to hedge against the financial impact that exposure to a team’s performance can have on a bottom line, to buy and sell contracts around live in-game and in-season momentum shifts, or to trade on a franchise’s broader season-long narrative. The product page lists Robinhood and StoneX as featured brokers, with a note that the list is provided solely for informational purposes and is not an endorsement of any particular broker or a verification of legal registration, a broker’s status, or a firm’s ability to solicit or carry customer accounts.