CME Group to Launch World's First Baseball Futures on October 12

• New contracts will be based on CME FutureSports Performance Indexes tracking Official League Data

CHICAGO, Oct. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced it will launch the world's first Baseball futures on October 12, 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 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. "The innovative contracts we're developing with FutureSports will be built on robust indexes using Official League Data, with the transparency and integrity that only regulated exchange-traded products deliver."

CME Group Baseball futures will be available in standard-sized contracts, valued at 10x the underlying CME FSPI MLB indexes, and micro-sized contracts that are 1/10 the value of those indexes. Participants can trade live around the clock, allowing for immediate positions on a regulated exchange with central clearing safeguards, transparent pricing and equal market access.

CME FSPI structure official sports statistics into rules-based, benchmark financial metrics. 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.

The CME FSPI methodologies align with the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) Principles for Financial Benchmarks and are supported by published governance and oversight procedures.

CME Group Baseball futures are listed on and subject to the rules of CME. For more information, visit cmegroup.com/fspi.

As the world's leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, cryptocurrencies, energy, agricultural products and metals. The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform. In addition, it operates one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing. 

CME Group, the Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Globex, and E-mini are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc. NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. BrokerTec is a trademark of BrokerTec Americas LLC and EBS is a trademark of EBS Group LTD. The S&P 500 Index is a product of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC ("S&P DJI"). "S&P®", "S&P 500®", "SPY®", "SPX®", US 500 and The 500 are trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC; Dow Jones®, DJIA® and Dow Jones Industrial Average are service and/or trademarks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. These trademarks have been licensed for use by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. Futures contracts based on the S&P 500 Index are not sponsored, endorsed, marketed, or promoted by S&P DJI, and S&P DJI makes no representation regarding the advisability of investing in such products. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 

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SOURCE CME Group