Polymarket Inks US, Canada Deal with European Soccer League LaLiga

Spain’s LaLiga has become the first European soccer league to partner with Polymarket in the U.S. and Canada, in a multi-year deal that gives the platform exclusive prediction market rights across the United States and Canada.

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The agreement grants Polymarket broadcast visibility during LaLiga matches, digital programming opportunities, and exclusive fan experiences while allowing the platform to use LaLiga intellectual property for match-related prediction markets.

In a press release, Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan positioned the partnership as helping to transform passive viewership into active participation. “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 of LaLiga’s joint venture partner Relevent, said that the partnership enabled the soccer league to “go beyond traditional engagement efforts” in order to reach new audiences. “Soccer’s growth, especially in North America, is spearheaded by young, diverse and multicultural audiences who consume the game across multiple screens, so it’s our goal to continue to engage these demographics in new and unique ways,” he added.

The LaLiga partnership is the latest in a series of agreements inked by Polymarket with sports organizations including the NHL, MLB, UFC and MLS. The platform’s push into sports partnerships is led by Ari Borod, the former Fanatics chief business officer who joined Polymarket as president of sports business development in February.

“There’s a lot of investment in, and focus on, the game of soccer in the U.S. right now,” Borod said in an interview with Front Office Sports, describing LaLiga as “one of the most iconic sports leagues on the planet.”

The prediction market’s push into sports partnerships comes as Polymarket leverages its growing war chest following NYSE parent company Intercontinental Exchange’s recent $1.6 billion investment in the platform. The firm is locked in competition with rival platform Kalshi, which doubled its valuation to $22 billion following a $1 billion raise last month.

Polymarket recently secured approval from the CFTC to return to US markets, but the sector continues to face growing regulatory scrutiny amid allegations of insider trading on prediction market platforms.

Both Polymarket and Kalshi recently offered new policies and procedures to try and address the insider trading concerns, following incidents such as a MrBeast video editor who was fined and suspended after profiting from inside information on the YouTube personality’s videos, and a pair of Israelis who were arrested and charged with misusing classified information in February, after having allegedly used military secrets to profit on Polymarket.

This week, CFTC chairman Michael Selig argued that driving prediction markets offshore into unregulated space could lead to FTX-style “implosions.”