It’s Not My Money(ball) 2026: Gambling in All But Name
An examination of MLB entering into an agreement with Polymarket for $150 to $300 million over the next four years.
Shayne Coplan, founder and chief executive officer of Polymarket, during a joint SEC-CFTC roundtable at SEC headquarters in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Sept. 29, 2025. Industry leaders will come together to discuss regulatory priorities during the joint round table hosted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Photographer: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images | Bloomberg via Getty Images In 2022, the “It’s Not My Money(ball)” series was created in response to the owners’ lockout, which disrupted that year’s Spring Training and arguably cost Clayton Kershaw a perfect game in Minneapolis ( I had fun ). As the season completes its first month, the World Baseball Classic now a memory, we must conclude the revival of this series as trouble looms in the distance, hanging in the air, exactly in the way a brick does not. This trilogy in five parts ( it’s yet another Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy joke ) was initially conceived from a single essay that ballooned in size to the point where a split was necessary.
As I worked on Pandora’s Box and MLB’s Dirty Dozen , I realized there was a deeper story than skinflint owners and a perception problem that the Dodgers are more than happy to lean into. Like a child who ate everlasting gum, research for this story just kept getting bigger and exponentially worse. I maintain that issues with private equity pose a greater threat to the league’s long-term health.
Today’s final topic is utterly depressing, the exemplar of the times. A true example of greed incarnate, without any semblance of empathy, pretending to be something decent and good, yet being anything but by reducing people to numbers without any empathy. Where have I heard that phrase before?
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