Lynnae is a journalist covering the intersection of technology, culture, and gambling. She has more than five years of experience as a writer and editor, with bylines at SlashGear and MakeUseOf. On the iGaming side,...
Read Full BioMadison Square Garden (MSG) announced yesterday that it had named Polymarket the official and exclusive prediction market partner of the New York Rangers. The move comes as prediction markets continue to expand into the territory that regulated sportsbooks have traditionally occupied.
The partnership will see Polymarket’s branding and activations featured at Rangers games at Madison Square Garden, during both local and nationally televised broadcasts, including LED signage, digitally enhanced dasher boards, concourse activations, and on-ice contests.
The company will also serve as one of the presenting partners for one of the team’s Centennial Theme Nights during the 2025-2026 season. Fans watching Rangers games on MSG networks will see Polymarket’s presence during “In-Game Polls” as well as in branded commercials and during the post-game show.
Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan described the deal as a new form of fan engagement, saying prediction markets offer fans “a real-time, interactive way to connect with the game.” MSG COO Jamaal Lesane described the agreement as a “landmark partnership” for the franchise in what he called a “new and exciting category.”
Deal Fits Into Polymarket’s Growing Sports Strategy
The Rangers deal adds a high-profile team-level partnership to Polymarket’s portfolio as the prediction market continues its expansion into professional sports, following a multi-year league-wide agreement with the NHL, which named both Polymarket and Kalshi as official prediction market partners in October 2025.
That deal granted the two prediction markets “access to official NHL proprietary data and rights to use NHL marks, logos and official designations on their platforms and products.”
While professional sports leagues’ deals with traditional sportsbooks have drawn some criticism for turning game broadcasts into something of a betting product, Polymarket’s and Kalshi’s NHL partnerships come at a time when prediction markets face ongoing skepticism from regulators and other professional leagues.
Leagues & Gambling Industry Warn of Integrity Risks
Even as the NHL has fully embraced prediction markets, other major sports leagues are taking a more cautious approach. Several leagues have publicly warned that prediction markets are a risk to competitive integrity.
In written testimony submitted to Congress in December 2025, the NFL said it was “particularly troubled” that sports-related prediction contracts are available nationwide, including in states where sports betting is still illegal.
The NBA expressed similar concerns in a May 2025 letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), warning that prediction markets lack oversight specific to sports, as well as data sharing obligations and requirements to report suspicious trading activity to leagues.
“Without oversight and regulation tailored to the specific circumstances of sports wagering, the integrity risks posed by sports prediction markets are more significant and more difficult to manage than those presented by legal, regulated sports gambling,” the NBA said in the letter.
MLB has also taken a firm stance. In a March letter to the CFTC, MLB said prediction markets would need to take steps to ensure proper protections are in place to prevent integrity risks, writing, “As the resemblance between sports event contracts and traditional sports betting markets continues to grow, so too does the need to replicate the integrity and consumer protections that exist at the state level. Currently, those protections are lacking.”
The league later warned players about participating in prediction markets, saying that doing so would violate MLB gambling policies.
Industry groups have also made their voices heard, with the American Gaming Association sending letters to the NFL, NBA, and MLB urging them not to follow in the NHL’s footsteps, arguing that platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi are “insufficiently regulated” and expose leagues to reputational and regulatory risk.
