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Shwetha Surendran
The UFC’s parent company announced a multiyear partnership with Polymarket on Thursday, increasing the prediction market’s presence in the American sports landscape as it prepares to launch in the U.S.
Prediction markets such as Polymarket and Kalshi allow users to trade on the yes/no outcome of events, including sports. Unlike sportsbooks such as FanDuel and DraftKings, Kalshi and Polymarket can operate in all 50 states, including California and Texas, where sports betting is not legal.
Polymarket is currently available globally, and is expected to officially launch in the U.S. in the coming months.
The UFC will integrate Polymarket’s prediction market odds into live broadcasts and will show market activity during fights in a “fan prediction scoreboard.”
Ari Emanuel, CEO of UFC’s parent company, TKO, said in a news release that the Polymarket partnership will allow fans to interact with fights in real time. “By partnering with Shayne and his team at Polymarket, we’re unlocking a new dimension of fan engagement,” he said.
“What’s exciting about our approach is that you can actually buy and sell, you can trade, just like a stock throughout the fight,” Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan said in an interview with CNBC. “And I think that that’ll create new user behavior and open up a new way to engage where you can buy and sell and buy and sell as the fight swings, the momentum swings.”
The NHL became the first major professional U.S. league to announce a deal with prediction markets last month.
Regulation of prediction markets is a hotly contested legal issue. Multiple state gaming regulators have sued Polymarket’s competitor Kalshi and allege that the company is violating state laws by offering event contracts that mimic sports bets. Kalshi argues it does not fall under state jurisdiction and is instead regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal agency.
Having watched the growth of prediction markets from the sideline for much of the year, FanDuel and DraftKings both announced that they will launch prediction markets, including sports event contracts, in the coming months.
The UFC partnership comes just a week after suspicious betting triggered allegations of a rigged fight in a featherweight bout between Isaac Dulgarian and Yadier del Valle on Nov. 1. The UFC released Dulgarian and said it is working with the FBI on an investigation into the unusual betting activity.