Major League Baseball (MLB) on Thursday, announced Polymarket as its official prediction market pitstop ahead of the upcoming national season, beginning on March 25 in the U.S. The move appears to be a milestone advancement in how the league, touted as the largest baseball league in the world, revamps its fan engagement approach especially towards members of the Web3 community.
The development grants Polymarket the exclusive rights to display official MLB logos and branding in its platform, appealing to the massive fanbase of the sports league and drumming up engagement during the MLB season against its competitor platforms including Kalshi.
For MLB, this partnership with Polymarket gives it a say in finalizing what kinds of prediction contracts related to the league matches make it to the user voting phase. MLB, for instance, has directed Polymarket to restrict high-risk contracts like umpire decisions and individual pitch results in order to curb the leakage of inside information.
Polymarket, instead, will focus on contracts polling on broader match outcomes like game winners and season awards.
The CFTC relation
Prediction markets such as Polymarket allow users to bet on the possible outcomes of future events.
The CFTC has long argued that prediction markets fall under the category of commodity derivatives, that are federally within CFTC’s jurisdiction. Earlier this month, the CFTC initiated the process to formulate the regulations to oversee prediction markets.
On Thursday, the MLB signed an MoU with the CFTC finalizing the exchange information concerning the protection of the integrity of professional baseball and the relating prediction markets.
“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,” said Michael Selig, the chairperson of the CFTC.
For now, prediction markets are under scrutiny in several U.S. states including Massachusetts and Nevada. State sports authorities in the U.S. have argued that prediction markets have been offering sports betting services to people without obtaining state clearance and the required licenses.
Once the CFTC clarifies its rules to oversee the prediction markets, the platforms may be cemented under federal regulations will will not require them to obtain state licenses.