Polymarket Becomes Major League Baseball’s Chosen Prediction Market
Prediction market Polymarket has signed a new agreement with Major League Baseball (MLB).
This agreement makes Polymarket the baseball’s official prediction markets exchange, the league announced Thursday (March 19).
“A key component of the partnership between MLB and Polymarket will be establishing a comprehensive integrity framework, which includes working together to restrict markets that present an integrity risk to MLB, such as individual pitches, manager decisions, and umpire performance, among others,” the league said. “Polymarket will also integrate integrity controls into its US Rulebook to ensure all of its brokers are held to the same integrity standards.”
The agreement gives Polymarket and its brokers access to MLB marks and logos to be used within their prediction market products, and to official data from Sportradar, MLB’s global distributor of data for prediction markets.
In tandem with the Polymarket agreement, Baseball Commissioner Robert Manfred Jr. signed a new memorandum of understanding with Michael Selig, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
This came after MLB wrote the CFTC calling for integrity protections in the prediction market space. Now, the two organizations are agreeing to share information on “the integrity of professional baseball and related prediction markets,” the announcement said.
“The new agreements that we formed with Polymarket and the CFTC are imperative steps in proactively managing the new and rapidly growing prediction market space,” Manfred said. “Protecting the integrity of the game on the field is our top priority. By engaging in this community, we are able to work together to create clear boundaries with the goal of mitigating risk while providing fan engagement opportunities.”
The partnership comes as predictions markets continue to face legal pressure from state regulators, while the CFTC claims oversight over the industry.
This week saw Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes file criminal charges against Polymarket rival Kalshi. The state alleges the companies behind Kalshi violated Arizona laws against operating an unlicensed wagering business and that banned betting on elections.
“Kalshi may brand itself as a ‘prediction market,’ but what it’s actually doing is running an illegal gambling operation and taking bets on Arizona elections, both of which violate Arizona law,” Mayes said in a news release. “No company gets to decide for itself which laws to follow.”
Kalshi has called the state’s case meritless and says it looks forward to defending its business in court.
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