Polymarket has signed a multi-year exclusive deal with Spain’s LaLiga giving the crypto-native prediction market platform sole rights to run match-related prediction markets across the United States and Canada — marking the first time a major European soccer league has partnered with a prediction market.
Under the agreement Polymarket will get broadcast visibility during LaLiga matches, create digital programming, run exclusive fan experiences and use LaLiga intellectual property to power match- and team-specific prediction markets. Polymarket hailed the move on Twitter as: “We're honored to be named the Exclusive Prediction Market Partner of LALIGA — the 1st major European soccer league to strike a deal with prediction markets. The official event contracts for teams like Real Madrid & FC Barcelona now live exclusively on Polymarket.”
Founder and CEO Shayne Coplan framed the partnership as part of a broader push to turn passive viewers into active participants. “Our goal is to give fans a more expressive way to follow the game, where opinions on players, matches, and season outcomes can be reflected in real time,” he said. Boris Gartner, CEO and partner at Relevent — LaLiga’s joint-venture partner in North America — said the deal will help the league “go beyond traditional engagement efforts” and reach younger, diverse, multi-screen audiences across the continent.
The LaLiga agreement is the latest in Polymarket’s sports playbook: the firm has already forged relationships with the NHL, MLB, UFC and MLS, and has been bulking up its sports team. Ari Borod, the former Fanatics chief business officer, joined Polymarket in February as president of sports business development to lead that push. Borod told Front Office Sports that LaLiga is “one of the most iconic sports leagues on the planet” and that soccer is seeing heavy investment and attention in the U.S.
Polymarket’s commercial expansion is happening alongside a major infusion of capital. NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange recently invested $1.6 billion in the prediction market. That funding comes amid heated competition: rival platform Kalshi doubled its valuation to roughly $22 billion after raising $1 billion last month.
But the sector remains under close regulatory and public scrutiny. Polymarket recently secured CFTC approval to resume US markets, yet prediction markets have been rocked by insider-trading episodes that prompted both Polymarket and Kalshi to roll out new policies and procedures. High-profile incidents include a MrBeast video editor who was fined and suspended after allegedly profiting from inside information about the YouTuber’s videos, and a February case in which two Israelis were arrested and charged with allegedly using classified military information to profit on Polymarket.
Those incidents have caught regulators’ attention. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig warned this week that driving prediction markets offshore into unregulated jurisdictions could invite catastrophic failures reminiscent of FTX.
What to watch next: whether LaLiga’s fan-facing integrations move real users onto prediction markets, how Polymarket monetizes these new exposure channels, and whether industry-wide compliance improvements and enforcement will satisfy regulators — and stem the reputational risks that have dogged the space.
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