NHL Deepens Ties to Polymarket, Kalshi As Other Leagues Stay Away

Two weeks after Kalshi’s deal with the Blackhawks marked the first formal pact between a prediction-market platform and a North American pro sports team, Polymarket has joined the party through an agreement with the Rangers.

Madison Square Garden Sports, which is a publicly traded company that owns the Rangers and Knicks, announced it by way of a press release. Notably, the deal with Polymarket only involves the Rangers, not the Knicks.

Both Polymarket and Kalshi are “official partners” of the NHL—the only major sports league that has embraced prediction markets. Controversy has swirled around prediction markets, in part because sports event contracts appear so similar to traditional sports betting. While sports betting is regulated on a state-by-state basis, prediction-market platforms are federally regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). 

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has said the league is comfortable being in business with Polymarket and Kalshi because “it gives us control.” He says the NHL can get the platforms to take down any contracts the league doesn’t think are appropriate.

Prediction-market platforms also offer more than just sports, and their other offerings have also caught heat. This week, a newly created, anonymous account made more than $400,000 in less than 24 hours trading on markets including whether Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro would be removed from power by the end of this month. Those suspiciously timed trades led one New York lawmaker to fast-track federal legislation aimed at stopping insider trading on these platforms.

The NFL, MLB, and NBA have yet to embrace prediction markets, even as big-name media companies, including CNBC and CNN, integrate their data. In May, the NBA’s assistant general counsel wrote a letter to the CFTC requesting “specific regulatory provisions that can mitigate the associated integrity risks” of prediction markets.

While it’s notable that the Knicks were not included in the new deal, it’s not unheard of for the team and the Rangers to strike partnerships independently of one another; earlier this month the Rangers announced a deal with Pellera Technologies that does not include the Knicks, and in 2022 the Knicks reached an agreement with DoorDash. There are examples of both teams being involved in agreements like this, including on Wednesday when MSG Sports extended its partnership with Anheuser-Busch.

Under the deal, Polymarket will be promoted in various ways during Rangers games at Madison Square Garden, on LED screens in the arenas, through “on-ice contests,” and more. MSG Sports COO Jamaal Lesane said in the company’s statement that “Polymarket is the perfect fit as one of the most reliable and forward-thinking prediction market operators.”

Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan, said “Prediction markets offer fans a real-time, interactive way to connect with the game, and the Rangers are an ideal franchise to bring this experience to a broader audience.”

While it was previously barred from operating in the U.S. for nearly four years under a settlement agreement with the Biden administration, Polymarket has been welcomed back into the country under President Donald Trump, whose son, Donald Trump Jr., is invested in the company through his firm, 1789 Capital.

In October, Intercontinental Exchange, the operator of the New York Stock Exchange, agreed to invest up to $2 billion in Polymarket, in a deal valuing the business at $9 billion.