Polymarket is now an official partner of a second U.S. sports league, signing a multi-year partnership with Major League Soccer (MLS) ahead of the FIFA World Cup coming to North America in May.
MLS announced that, through a deal with its commercial arm, Soccer United Marketing (SUM), Polymarket will serve as the official and exclusive prediction market partner of MLS, the MLS All-Star Game, the MLS Cup championship game and the midseason Leagues Cup tournament.
A press release stated that the deal, which will include the two entities working together to develop digital fan experiences, makes MLS one of the first soccer leagues in the world to integrate prediction market insights.
“As soccer’s audience continues to grow and evolve in the U.S., fans are looking for new ways to engage more deeply with the game,” said Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan. “Through our partnership with MLS and Leagues Cup, we can surface real-time collective sentiment around key moments, matches and season-long storylines, giving fans a more interactive, data-driven way to experience the game and engage with the world’s most popular sport.”
Partners put integrity at the forefront of announcement
Monday’s announcement focused firmly on integrity as a key issue, noting that the partnership includes safeguards such as mandatory independent monitoring of trading activities and collaboration on all MLS and Leagues Cup markets offered. One such specialist monitoring firm, Integrity Compliance 360 (IC360), already has a partnership with Kalshi and offers a ProhiTrade solution that is similar to its ProhiBet data-sharing and compliance tool for sports wagering.
MLS Senior Vice President of Emerging Ventures Chris Schlosser told Front Office Sports that the league had conversations with all major prediction markets before selecting Polymarket. He added that MLS will have some say over what markets are offered. “How do we ensure the integrity of matches and competition to the best of our ability?” he said. “It became clear that the best way to do that was to lean in and partner with these guys to create an integrity framework that we felt was really needed.”
That is similar to the messaging from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman after the NHL became the first sports league to partner with a prediction market in October, signing deals with both Polymarket and Kalshi. “It gives us control,” Bettman told CNBC, “because we have the ability to take down any contracts that we don’t think are appropriate.”
Meanwhile, other major sports leagues have kept their distance. Last year, before the NHL deals were announced, the NBA sent a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) voicing concerns about the infancy of NBA event contracts, and MLB previously asked the federal regulator to create an “integrity framework” that offers the same consumer protections required by sportsbooks. Meanwhile, NCAA President Charlie Baker wrote to the CFTC to urge it to suspend prediction markets from offering event contract trading on college sports unless firmer protections are put in place.
Polymarket’s second nationwide sports league deal also comes days after it was sued by the Nevada Gaming Control Board over its sports contracts, and not much longer after it was issued a cease-and-desist order by the Tennessee Sports Wagering Council.
Could more in-stream integrations follow?
The MLS-Polymarket announcement also mentioned that a focus of their partnership will be enhancing “the live match experience and second-screen engagement for fans.”
Two months ago, Polymarket, which re-launched event contract trading in the U.S. for waitlisted members in early December, unveiled a deal with UFC that it said would include a live market-tracking integration. UFC viewers will be able to interact with real-time market changes on Polymarket while watching UFC streams on Paramount+.
