Partnerships with prediction markets pose concerns for MLB

ORLANDO, FL - DECEMBER 08: Major League Baseball Commissioner Robert D. Manfred Jr. looks on during the MLB and the Dominican Baseball Federation announcement at the 2025 Winter Meetings at The Signia by Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek on Monday, December 8, 2025 in Orlando, Florida.

(Photo by Mary Holt/WBCI/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images If you have been concerned that there are not enough ways in 2026 to gamble on Major League Baseball, then I have good news for you. MLB entered into a partnership with prediction market Polymarket, first reported by Ben Horney of Front Office Sports and then later announced by both organizations. Polymarket gains the right to use official logos and marks, while MLB is reported to receive somewhere between $150 million and $300 million a year from the prediction markets.

Prediction markets, which are a relatively new product but rapidly increasing in popularity and visibility, allow users to bet on a whole host of things, from who will win the Kansas City Royals home opener to whether Jesus Christ return before 2027? These bets happen against other users through the buying and selling of contracts, similar to how a stock exchange works, instead of betting against the house as you do in a casino. This difference currently allows the markets to be regulated at the federal level by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission instead of at the state level, where traditional gambling is regulated.

Theoretically, this makes these markets legal nationwide, although that is currently being challenged in court. Unsurprisingly, Evan Drellich of the Athletic wrote an excellent article about the partnership. His treatise included quotes from Ari Borod, Polymarket president of sports business, that I think are both very revealing and very frustrating to someone like me who is ready to go full Temperance Movement on legalized gambling.