Polymarket has become an official prediction market partner of the New York Yankees, adding one of the biggest brands in American sports to the platform’s rapidly expanding roster of sports partnerships. The deal announced Thursday will put Polymarket branding inside Yankee Stadium and in front of viewers watching locally televised Yankees games for the remainder of the 2026 season.
“We are excited to begin a relationship with Polymarket — Major League Baseball’s prediction market partner,” Yankees Senior Vice President of Partnerships Michael Tusiani said in a news release. “Through signage and fan experience opportunities, we look forward to elevating Polymarket’s brand awareness both at Yankee Stadium and across our fan base.”
The Yankees are the latest major New York sports team to embrace a prediction market platform. The Mets last week named Novig their official prediction-market partner in a multiyear deal, becoming the first individual MLB franchise to enter the category, while the New York Rangers partnered with Polymarket in January.
Those partnerships are taking shape against an increasingly complicated legal backdrop in the teams’ home state. New York is pursuing a sweeping enforcement action against Kalshi that seeks at least $36 billion pending an accounting and could ultimately help determine whether the state can use its gambling laws to stop federally regulated exchanges from offering sports event contracts to New Yorkers.
If New York ultimately establishes the authority to block sports event contracts offered through Commodity Futures Trading Commission-regulated exchanges, the state could reach the unusual point where fans are being marketed prediction market platforms by the Yankees, Mets and Rangers while potentially being unable to use those platforms to trade contracts on the very teams promoting them.
Polymarket expands MLB presence with Yankees deal
Under the new partnership, Polymarket branding will appear throughout Yankee Stadium for the remainder of the current MLB season. That includes LED signage before and during games and rotating signage behind home plate during locally televised games on YES Network and Prime Video.
The agreement also includes fan experiences, including opportunities for children to make an outfield catch, run the bases and deliver the Yankees’ lineup card.
The Yankees partnership builds on a much larger relationship Polymarket already has with MLB. In March, the league named Polymarket its exclusive prediction market exchange partner, giving the platform and its brokers exclusive access to MLB logos for use in prediction market products, along with official league data supplied by Sportradar.
That league-level agreement also established an integrity framework between MLB and Polymarket. Among other provisions, the parties agreed to restrict markets MLB considers potential integrity risks, including contracts involving individual pitches, manager decisions and umpire performance. MLB separately entered into an information-sharing agreement with the CFTC as part of its push to establish safeguards around federally regulated baseball event contracts.
Prediction market platforms make inroads with New York teams
The Yankees are the third major New York sports team to strike a direct partnership with a prediction market platform this year.
The Mets signed a multiyear deal with Novig that includes branding throughout Citi Field, team broadcasts and digital channels. Novig, whose Ludlow Exchange received CFTC approval as a designated contract market in June, relaunched as a federally regulated sports exchange earlier this week and is available to users in New York.
Polymarket, meanwhile, partnered with the Rangers in January. As the team’s exclusive prediction markets partner, Polymarket receives exposure during Rangers games at Madison Square Garden through signage, in-arena activations and integrations on MSG Networks.
Kalshi also has a significant New York sports presence, though not through an individual team deal. In May, it became an official partner of Madison Square Garden and MSG Networks in a multiyear agreement that includes naming rights to the arena’s sixth-floor concourse.
New York escalates fight with Kalshi
New York’s legal battle with Kalshi has escalated rapidly since a federal judge ruled last month that the state could enforce its gambling laws against the exchange’s sports event contracts while the case proceeds.
Attorney General Letitia James followed that victory with a civil enforcement action seeking to stop Kalshi from operating in violation of state gambling laws, with a court filing listing at least $36 billion in claimed compensatory damages pending an accounting. The state is also seeking restitution, disgorgement and penalties. Kalshi quickly removed the case to federal court.
The CFTC and Department of Justice also sought emergency relief to block New York’s action, arguing the state was intruding on the agency’s exclusive jurisdiction over federally regulated exchanges. A federal judge denied that request, leaving the state’s enforcement action in place for now.
Kalshi is separately pressing its appeal of the earlier ruling at the Second Circuit. Sports and gaming attorney Daniel Wallach reported Wednesday that the court accepted Kalshi’s proposed schedule, with its opening brief due Aug. 31, while a motion seeking an injunction against New York enforcement during the appeal remains pending.
New York regulators are also turning up the pressure directly. According to subpoenas obtained by Wallach, the New York State Gaming Commission is demanding documents by Aug. 14 concerning Kalshi’s sports products, including transactions involving users under 21 and the futures commission merchants and introducing brokers that have facilitated sports-contract trading on the exchange.
Legal maneuvers in New York extend beyond Kalshi
Kalshi is not the only prediction market platform fighting New York. Novig’s Ludlow Exchange filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday seeking to prevent state officials from applying New York gambling laws to its sports event contracts before the state takes enforcement action against the company.
New York has already gone beyond Kalshi in its prediction market enforcement push. AG James sued Coinbase and Gemini in April, alleging their sports, entertainment and election event contracts constitute illegal, unlicensed gambling in the state.
Coinbase and Gemini removed those cases to federal court, with the remand motions pending before U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero as of the latest publicly available docket entries.
New York partnerships collide with legal uncertainty
For now, New York’s push has not directly targeted Polymarket, and Novig is trying to head off any enforcement before it happens. But the state’s position reaches beyond any single company. It argues that federally regulated sports event contracts can still be subject to New York gambling laws.
That leaves an unusual possibility hanging over the new sports partnerships. If New York ultimately prevails, prediction market platforms could continue advertising inside some of the state’s most prominent sports venues while being forced to prevent New Yorkers from trading sports contracts on the teams playing there.
The Yankees/Polymarket deal shows how prediction markets are becoming more deeply embedded in mainstream sports. New York’s court battles could determine whether hometown fans are ultimately allowed to participate in that growth.
