The MLB has agreed to a multiyear partnership with Polymarket that will make the prediction market the league’s exclusive prediction market exchange partner. The deal will make it the only platform allowed to use team logos and marks, according to Front Office Sports.
We’re honored to announce MLB has named Polymarket as their Exclusive Prediction Market Exchange Partner.
Polymarket 🤝 MLB pic.twitter.com/o192gdhpZm
— Polymarket (@Polymarket) March 19, 2026
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred revealed at the conclusion of February’s owners meetings that the league was exploring a potential partnership with a prediction market.
“We thought it was important for the owners to be updated on why prediction markets are different than sports betting — why we might want to consider being in be business with prediction markets in an effort to protect our integrity, to get the kind of protections we need,” Manfred said, via ESPN’s Jeff Passan. “The regulatory framework, very different. Obviously, state by state on the sports betting side, federal on the other.”
It’s an interesting pivot for the MLB, which warned its athletes against “participating in ‘prediction markets’ to risk money on any outcome related to baseball games or events,” in n a memo obtained by Front Office Sports last year.
Manfred’s willingness to partner with prediction markets is somewhat surprising, considering last season’s scandals and the markets’ susceptibility to insider trading and market manipulation.
However, the MLB isn’t the first league to partner with these markets. The MLS also has a deal with Polymarket, and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman recently defended the NHL’s partnerships with Polymarket and Kalshi from a year ago.
Bettman told CNBC’s Melissa Lee that the league wanted to ensure “real data being used so there was no debate about outcome” of any markets or bets and had the authority to “take down any contracts that we think are inappropriate.”
When Lee asked if the NHL had taken down any contracts it had deemed inappropriate, Bettman responded: “No, we haven’t had to, but we’re monitoring it on a real-time basis.”
Prediction markets, which are regulated federally by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, have proved controversial due to their similarities to traditional sports betting, which is governed on a state-by-state basis.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.