A year after expressing concern over potential integrity risks from prediction markets, Major League Baseball announced two sports predictions agreements.
On Thursday, the MLB announced Polymarket as its exclusive sports predictions exchange. The league also said it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to share information regarding integrity of the MLB and those related prediction markets.
“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,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in the release. “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.”
The MLB was one of many organizations that expressed concerns last March about prediction markets expanding with sports contracts. The comments were submitted to the CFTC for a sports predictions roundtable that was never held.
Exclusive sports predictions deal
Polymarket and its sports predictions partners can now use the MLB trademarks and logos within their predictions products. The exchange can settle its baseball contracts using official MLB data from Sportradar.
“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,” a Sportsradar spokesperson said. “Similar to our approach with OSBs, 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.”
Key to the partnership is the integrity angle with the two “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.”
The MLB worked with sportsbooks to get bets on individual pitches limited to $200 bets and no longer allow the bets as parlay legs after two Cleveland Guardians pitchers were accused of manipulating pitches so others could win bets.
The release notes that while Polymarket is the MLB’s exclusive partner, the league “intends to have integrity relationships with all other prediction market exchanges offering baseball contracts.”
Details of MLB-CFTC info sharing
The MOU allows the league and the CFTC to “discuss, cooperate, and exchange information” for common issues, like the integrity of the MLB’s games.
The deal is “necessary in futherance of their respective missions,” the MOU says. The CFTC’s General Counsel Tyler Badgley and MLB’s Senior VP and Head Counsel of Policy, Integrity and Compliance Quest Meeks can both designate two staffers as points of contact for the agreement.
Representatives of each side will meet “as needed, but at least monthly, to identify and discuss issues” that could impact MLB integrity.
