Major League Baseball Signs Polymarket as Official Prediction Market
Major League Baseball has named Polymarket its Official Prediction Market in a deal valued at up to $300 million over three years.
Major League Baseball has moved into prediction markets. The league announced two deals on Thursday. Polymarket becomes MLB’s Official Prediction Market. Separately, Commissioner Rob Manfred and CFTC Chair Michael Selig signed a memorandum of understanding focused on protecting the integrity of baseball.
The Polymarket deal is valued between $150 million and $300 million over a potential three years. It is the largest commitment any U.S. professional sports league has made to the prediction market sector.
What the Polymarket Deal Includes
The arrangement follows the structure of a traditional league sponsorship. Polymarket and its brokers receive exclusive access to MLB marks and logos. The Polymarket brand will appear on MLB digital assets and at league events. The deal also includes access to official MLB data through Sportradar.
Polymarket has not yet fully launched its U.S. platform, but sports event contracts are already available in the app. The MLB logo is visible within the platform, though baseball-specific markets do not yet appear to be active.
MLB already holds official partnerships with FanDuel, DraftKings, and BetMGM for sports betting. The Polymarket deal adds a prediction market partnership alongside those existing relationships.
The CFTC Memorandum of Understanding
The agreement between Manfred and CFTC Chair Selig formalizes a commitment to cooperation on integrity matters. Selig said both parties have committed to working together to protect the integrity and resilience of prediction markets relating to professional baseball.
Manfred described the dual announcements as proactive steps in managing the rapidly growing prediction market space. He said protecting on-field integrity is the league’s top priority and that engagement with prediction markets is designed to create clear boundaries and mitigate risk while providing fan engagement opportunities.
The MOU reflects the CFTC’s broader strategy under Selig. The commission has been asserting exclusive federal jurisdiction over prediction markets and positioning itself as the appropriate regulator for the sector. A formal relationship with MLB strengthens that narrative.
The Context: Integrity Concerns and Betting Scandals
The announcement is not without irony. Prediction markets and integrity are not naturally aligned concepts in the minds of many industry observers. Manfred previewed the league’s interest in prediction markets in February while discussing a betting controversy involving Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz.
At the time, Manfred told reporters the owners had been briefed on why prediction markets differ from sports betting and why the league might consider partnering with them as a tool to protect integrity. The argument is that working with regulated federal prediction market platforms gives MLB access to data and monitoring tools it would not otherwise have.
A Growing List of League Partners
MLB is not the first pro league to partner with a prediction market. It is the largest U.S. sports property to do so. The NHL signed licensing deals with both Polymarket and Kalshi in October. Polymarket also holds marketing agreements with MLS and UFC.
That leaves the NFL and NBA as the two major U.S. leagues without prediction market partners. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said at All-Star weekend last month that the league is examining prediction markets in the same way it evaluates sports betting companies.
The NFL walked back comments by Executive Vice President Jeff Miller about the fan engagement benefits of prediction markets, though the league has not ruled out future partnerships.
The pace of league adoption suggests that with federal regulatory support from the CFTC, prediction market sponsorships are becoming a standard part of the professional sports commercial landscape. How quickly the remaining holdouts follow MLB’s lead will be one of the more closely watched stories in sports business this year.
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