Mr. & Mrs. Met now have their own prediction market.
The New York Mets have recorded another first — and this one has nothing to do with losing or bloated payrolls.
The Mets and Novig announced a multi-year agreement Thursday that makes the sports-trading platform the team's Exclusive Official Prediction Market Partner. It is the first partnership between a Major League Baseball franchise and a prediction market operator.
The deal arrives as Novig prepares to launch its federally regulated sports prediction market. Sources tell RotoWire that Novig's fully CFTC-compliant platform could go live within the next two weeks.
Beginning this season, Novig will receive a substantial presence across the Mets' ecosystem, including prominent Citi Field signage, branded in-game features, broadcast-visible advertising and original content distributed through the club's digital and social channels.
"We're proud to be the first Major League Baseball club to partner with a prediction market company, giving our fans a new and engaging way to connect with the game," Mets President of Business Operations Lew Sherr said.
"Innovation is a defining characteristic of our business, and this partnership is another example of our commitment to staying at the forefront of the evolving sports landscape."
From Concern To Cooperation
MLB's embrace of prediction markets did not happen overnight.
A year ago, the league was asking the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for stronger protections as sports event contracts began proliferating on federally regulated exchanges. Baseball's concerns centered on insider trading, market manipulation and contracts involving events that could be controlled — or heavily influenced — by a player, manager or umpire.
But instead of standing outside the prediction-market ballpark and yelling through the fence, MLB decided to get into the game. It followed the NHL, but may bring the NBA and NFL along for the ride, eventually.
In March, MLB named Polymarket its Official Prediction Market Exchange and signed a first-of-its-kind memorandum of understanding with the CFTC. That agreement established a formal process through which the league and federal regulator could share information involving professional baseball and related prediction markets.
The framework is designed to help both sides respond more quickly to suspicious activity and anticipate emerging integrity threats. MLB's agreement with Polymarket also called for restrictions on potentially problematic markets involving individual pitches, managerial decisions and umpire performance. MLB said at the time that it planned to establish integrity relationships with every exchange offering baseball contracts.
Novig recently became one of those exchanges, receiving designation as an MLB Authorized Prediction Market. The status places Novig within MLB's integrity program and includes market monitoring, reporting protocols and restrictions on contracts that the league believes could threaten the integrity of its games.
Now the relationship has progressed from regulatory cooperation at the league level to a full-fledged commercial partnership at the club level.
Novig Launch Draws Closer
The Mets agreement also gives Novig a significant foothold in the nation's largest media market just as the company prepares for its most important launch.
The CFTC designated Novig's Ludlow Exchange as a designated contract market in June, officially clearing the company to operate a federally regulated exchange.
Unlike broader platforms that offer contracts covering politics, economics, entertainment and world events, Novig plans to focus exclusively on sports. Its peer-to-peer model allows participants to trade against one another instead of wagering against a traditional sportsbook.
"Our mission is to build the home for sports trading," Novig CEO and co-founder Jacob Fortinsky said. "Partnering with one of baseball's most iconic franchises allows us to bring that vision directly to fans in one of the greatest sports markets in the world."
Novig previously operated as a betting exchange in New Jersey and Colorado before shifting to a sweepstakes model. Fortinsky has consistently argued that a single federal framework provides a better route for operators and consumers than navigating a patchwork of state regulations.
"Federal oversight allows us to scale within a framework built on trust, transparency and fairness," Fortinsky said after receiving CFTC approval.
The Mets partnership provides Novig with something equally valuable ahead of launch: legitimacy and visibility.
One year after MLB approached prediction markets primarily as an integrity concern, one of its clubs is preparing to place a prediction-market brand throughout its stadium, broadcasts and digital products.
Prediction markets have not merely reached the majors. They now have signage at Citi Field.
