Major League Baseball (MLB) has named Polymarket as its exclusive prediction market exchange partner, while also signing a landmark agreement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CCTC) to establish an integrity framework.
The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with MLB marks the first of its kind between the CFTC and a professional sports league, and comes one year after MLB wrote a letter to the CFTC calling for strong integrity protections in the rapidly evolving prediction market space.
The MOU establishes a framework for the CFTC and MLB to discuss, cooperate, and exchange information concerning issues of common interest, including protecting the integrity of professional baseball and the relating prediction markets.
The MOU provides a mechanism for the CFTC and MLB to exchange information in a manner consistent with applicable law, which will enable both parties to more swiftly respond to incidents and better anticipate emerging trends.
“The MOU is a collaborative step towards promoting the integrity and resilience of the prediction markets relating to professional baseball,” said CFTC chairman Michael Selig. “Through this MOU, the CFTC is well-positioned to add additional tools to protect these markets and its participants from fraud, manipulation, and other abuses.
“I thank MLB and Commissioner Rob Manfred for partnering with the CFTC and taking a leading role in protecting the integrity of these growing markets.”
As part of Polymarket’s official partnership with MLB, Polymarket and its brokers will get exclusive access to MLB marks and logos to be used within their prediction market products.
Polymarket will also get access to official league data from Sportradar, MLB’s exclusive global distributor of data for prediction markets, and receive brand exposure across MLB’s digital ecosystem and at league events.
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.
Polymarket will also integrate integrity controls into its US Rulebook to ensure all of its brokers are held to the same integrity standards.
While Polymarket will be MLB’s official prediction market exchange with a set of exclusive rights, MLB intends to have integrity relationships with all other prediction market exchanges offering baseball contracts.
Those exchanges will be required to integrate the necessary integrity protections into their individual rulebooks.
“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,” said MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. “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.”
Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan added: “Polymarket is about bringing fans closer to the moments that define sports. By working collaboratively with Major League Baseball and regulators, we can create new ways for fans to engage with the game while protecting the integrity of the sport.”
A spokesperson for Sportradar said: “As the exclusive global data distributor and integrity partner for Major League Baseball, we see a significant opportunity to monetize our products and services in prediction markets. Similar to our approach with online sports betting, our commercial agreements will be varied and structured to optimize value.
“Our arrangement with MLB reflects this approach providing Polymarket with MLB data and the opportunity to provide our broad suite of products and services, as well as an ability to provide these to other participants in the prediction markets.”