Polymarket Becomes Official Prediction Market Partner Of NY Rangers
Polymarket introduced at present that it has been named the official prediction market accomplice of NHL staff the New York Rangers.
The skilled hockey league turned the primary main U.S. sports activities league to embrace prediction markets when it introduced in October of 2025 that it had signed multi-year partnership agreements with each Polymarket and its primary competitor, Kalshi. Just earlier than Christmas, the Chicago Blackhawks turned the primary North American sports activities staff to accomplice with a prediction market platform when it introduced a model partnership with Kalshi.
Jamaal Lesane, Chief Operating Officer of MSG Sports, which owns the Rangers and the NBA’s New York Knicks, known as the unique partnership with the New York City-headquartered prediction market firm a “excellent match.”
“This is a landmark partnership for the Rangers on this new and thrilling class, and Polymarket is the right match as one of the dependable and forward-thinking prediction market operators,” Lesane stated in a information launch. “Polymarket turns into not simply an Official Partner of the Rangers, however they will even be concerned throughout digital channels, fan activations and promotions at Rangers video games.”
Deal provides Polymarket branding presence at MSG and through broadcasts
As a part of the settlement, Polymarket branding will probably be featured throughout Ranger video games at Madison Square Garden (MSG) by way of on-ice contests, concourse actions, and signage, together with digital graphics on the dasher boards that will probably be seen throughout native and nationally televised video games. As an official accomplice of the Garden Cup skilled tennis event, Polymarket had comparable publicity at MSG throughout final month’s occasions.
Polymarket will even be featured on commercial boards exterior of MSG, giving the model additional publicity to the many individuals who stroll/drive by the realm in Manhattan every day.
Beyond the on-rink digital signage, Polymarket can have extra presence throughout Rangers sport broadcasts on MSG Networks because the presenting sponsor of their “In-Game Polls” segments, which is able to probably embrace Rangers-related odds from the prediction platform. According to the information launch, Polymarket will even be featured in post-game segments and branded commercials.
Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan stated the partnership will convey “a brand new, dynamic layer of engagement to the fan expertise” for one of the devoted fanbases in sports activities.
“Prediction markets supply followers a real-time, interactive approach to join with the sport, and the Rangers are a super franchise to convey this expertise to a broader viewers,” Coplan stated within the launch.
NHL early to embrace prediction markets
The NHL’s deal additionally gave Polymarket (and Kalshi) a presence throughout league-wide nationwide sport broadcasts. That initial deal moreover provides the prediction exchanges’ entry to official NHL information, in addition to the fitting to make use of official NHL branding and logos with their hockey markets.
Previously, as a consequence of issues over copyright pushback, each platforms didn’t use official logos or staff names with their NHL markets. This stays the usual observe for the exchanges’ different sports activities markets, which use solely the groups’ metropolis and colour schemes. The NHL deal seems to be solely associated to Polymarket’s U.S. operations. While the U.S. app (which gentle launched late final 12 months with solely sports activities markets) makes use of official logos and staff names, Polymarket’s on-chain worldwide platform nonetheless makes use of the generic markings for NHL markets.
A advantage of the prediction markets deal for the NHL is that it reportedly provides the league some say over what forms of markets are made out there. During an look on CNBC’s Squawk Box late last year, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman stated the agreements give the league some management of the markets “as a result of we now have the flexibility to take down any contracts we don’t assume are acceptable.”
Other leagues involved about regulatory necessities
Bettman’s feedback about market management got here as different sports activities leagues, particularly the NBA and MLB, had been coping with scandals during which gamers had been accused of coordinated schemes to control sports activities betting outcomes with their on-court/discipline performances. Bettman stated that he didn’t assume NHL video games had been as susceptible to such manipulation, however that the prediction market agreements function an extra “protecting” measure.
The NBA, NFL and MLB have all pushed for sportsbooks and regulators to not enable sure forms of bets deemed vulnerable to such abuse.
Those leagues, which all have partnerships with conventional sportsbook operators, have additionally expressed concern about integrity dangers and regulatory necessities associated to sports activities prediction markets, which they see as much less enough than state-level sports activities betting guidelines and security guardrails. MLB, NFL and NBA have all despatched letters to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which regulates prediction markets on a federal stage, asking that these issues be addressed. The CFTC has not publicly commented on any potential measures it could absorb response to the leagues’ letters.
Polymarket, Kalshi use integrity displays for sports activities contracts
For Kalshi’s half, the corporate has been quick to defend accusations that it lacks the identical safeguards as sportsbooks make use of. Kalshi partners with Integrity Compliance 360 (IC360), an integrity monitoring service that works with leagues, in addition to a number of sportsbooks, and has the identical sort of KYC necessities as sports activities betting operators.
Polymarket has been much less vocal about its integrity measures, however Sports Business Journal reported that a part of the NHL offers was an settlement to stick to the identical integrity provisions as is required of the league’s sportsbook companions. The report stated that included working with NHL information feed accomplice Sportradar and IC360, which each platforms already use, the NHL’s president of enterprise, Keith Wachtel, advised the outlet.
The leagues’ prediction market integrity issues are a part of the rationale they haven’t but partnered with any prediction market platform just like the NHL has. Given their sportsbook partnerships, they could even be reluctant to get entangled because of the ongoing state challenges over the platforms’ proper to supply sports activities occasion contracts of their jurisdictions, arguing that they’re nothing greater than sanctioned sports activities betting.
But the NHL’s prediction market partnerships giving them some say over what markets are supplied might assist soften these seemingly hardline stances in opposition to prediction platforms. It appears probably that, barring a nationwide ban on sports activities contracts, one other league will check the waters in some unspecified time in the future.
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