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Major League Soccer (MLS), through its commercial arm Soccer United Marketing (SUM), announced a long-term partnership with Polymarket, the world’s largest prediction market platform. Under the partnership, Polymarket will be the official and exclusive prediction market partner of MLS and the Leagues Cup in the United States. This partnership is a significant step towards MLS’s broader strategy of innovation and fan engagement.
This partnership also marks MLS as one of the first football leagues across the globe to incorporate prediction market insights into the fan experience. This is also a reflection of the growing intersection between sports, technology, and data.
Scope and Details of the Agreement
As part of the partnership, Polymarket will be the official prediction market partner across several of MLS’s most important properties. These include the MLS regular season, MLS All-Star, MLS Cup presented by Audi, and the Leagues Cup. This exclusivity also speaks to MLS’s belief in prediction markets as a new form of engaging with modern sports fans.
This partnership is not centered on traditional forms of sports betting but rather on prediction market insights that highlight the collective fan sentiment. By utilizing Polymarket’s platform, MLS will be able to present fans with aggregated and real-time perspectives on key moments, matches, and storylines across the course of the season.
New Digital Experiences for Fans
A key part of the partnership is centered on creating new and innovative digital experiences, especially through so-called second-screen platforms on mobile phones and tablets. These second screens will be used to provide fans with additional layers of context and engagement while games are being broadcast live on traditional screens.
The idea is to bring fans closer to the action by providing a platform to see the way fans collectively view a particular moment. This is also a step in the right direction as far as the larger trend in sports consumption is concerned.
“As soccer audiences continue to grow and evolve in the U.S., fans are looking for new ways to engage more deeply with the game”, said Shayne Coplan, founder and CEO of Polymarket. “Through our partnership with MLS and the Leagues Cup, we can reveal the real-time collective sentiment around important moments, matches, and storylines throughout the season, offering fans a more interactive and data-driven way to experience the game and engage with the world’s most popular sport.”
Innovation as a Strategic Priority for MLS
It was also emphasized that the partnership is a significant step towards the strategic direction that MLS has been taking as a league. According to Gary Stevenson, MLS Deputy Commissioner and President of Soccer United Marketing, “Innovation has been a key component of our long-term strategic plan as we look to engage fans and take the league forward. This partnership with Polymarket allows us to bring prediction markets as a form of fan engagement into the mix and be one of the first movers in the world of football.”
Integrity and Safeguards
There are also specific integrity safeguards built into the partnership. These include the monitoring of commercial activities and the type of markets offered.
This announcement comes at an exciting time as soccer continues to gain momentum in North America. As the FIFA World Cup approaches, interest in soccer continues to gain speed, and MLS and Leagues Cup are entering a new era of growth, one that is being shaped by technology, innovation, and fan engagement.
Source: iGaming Brasil
