MLB-Polymarket Pact Bad On Optics, But Was ‘Inevitable,’ Says Sports Attorney

IMAGN/Brant James illustration If Polymarket had last week posted a sports event contract on whether Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase or Luis Ortiz will pitch in Major League Baseball this season, few would have been shocked. Many would have bought the “No” and kept scrolling. That would have been a fairly tame market, anyway, considering some of the outlandish bettable things — world leaders being ousted, Jesus presenting himself — sites like Polymarket and Kalshi have offered since their ascendancy.

But Polymarket is apparently out of the outlandish bet business now, at least when it comes to MLB, having become on March 19 the league’s official prediction market partner, with a mutually expressed desire to guarantee fans and bettors a fair game. The deal came against the backdrop of MLB’s own insider trading scandal — albeit through legal sportsbooks — as it awaits Clase and Ortiz standing trial on Nov. 2 .

The two are accused of working with gamblers and manipulating pitches. With prediction markets recently absorbing state-level losses over the legality of sports event contracts, and the insider trading aspect of the business generating negative public and congressional attention, Polymarket stands to benefit from the legitimacy of MLB as an institution. And MLB, stigmatized by more betting scandals than any other American sports league, got another chance to brandish the word “integrity” before Opening Day.

And, also, there was the cash. MLB’s bold move comes with questions Two years after claiming that MLB was “dragged” into legal sports betting by Supreme Court case that made it a state-by-state possibility in 2018, Commissioner Rob Manfred birthed a deal that Front Office Sports reported as a three-year partnership worth upward of $300 million. MLB receives a major cash infusion.