LeBron James Becomes First NBA Player To Sign Individual Partnership With Polymarket, Teases Deal Ahead Of NFL

NEW YORK — LeBron James has teased an upcoming individual partnership with Polymarket, the prediction market platform, becoming the first NBA player to sign such an agreement with the company as prediction markets continue expanding their reach across professional sports.

James posted a 14-second video Saturday on X and Instagram appearing to promote the partnership, showing the four-time NBA champion inside an elevator at what the video labeled “Polymarket HQ.” The elevator’s buttons displayed categories including sports, politics, crypto, economy, culture and weather, with James selecting the sports option before walking into a busy office-style setting.

“Welcome to Polymarket HQ. Coming soon,” James wrote in the post. “In partnership with Polymarket.”

Polymarket quickly responded to James’s post on X.

“Thanks for stopping by our HQ,” the company wrote.

The specific terms and full scope of James’s role in the partnership have not been publicly disclosed. A person familiar with the matter told CNBC that the campaign between James and Polymarket will focus specifically on football, and that additional details are expected in the days ahead. A Polymarket spokesperson told The Athletic that the company hopes to leverage “James’ love for the sport” as the football season approaches.

According to Front Office Sports, the partnership comes shortly after James’s prior endorsement deal with DraftKings expired earlier this summer. A source familiar with the arrangement told the outlet that Saturday’s post marked the first step in a larger campaign expected to launch early this week, with the football-focused partnership structure mirroring James’s earlier DraftKings deal, which he first signed in 2024.

James’s Polymarket announcement generated significant engagement online, racking up nearly 10 million views within seven hours of being posted, according to Front Office Sports. The reaction was not universally positive, with some critical posts pushing back on James’s decision to align himself with a prediction market platform, drawing more engagement in some cases than James’s original post.

Polymarket, which describes itself as the world’s largest prediction market, allows users to trade contracts tied to the outcomes of real-world events, including elections, sports results and economic data releases. James’s deal adds him to a growing roster of prominent athletes who have entered the prediction market sector in recent months. Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo became a shareholder in rival platform Kalshi earlier this year and agreed to participate in marketing efforts and live events for that company, though Kalshi has said his stake remains passive and that its rules prohibit him from trading on NBA-related markets. Golf star Bryson DeChambeau signed an ambassador deal with Kalshi in January, becoming the first major athlete to formally partner with a prediction market platform, and has since incorporated Kalshi’s markets into content on his YouTube channel. Soccer icon Lionel Messi and tennis star Maria Sharapova have also promoted Polymarket.

James’s arrangement marks a notable milestone within that broader trend, according to Yahoo Sports, which reported that he is both the first individual NBA player to sign a partnership with Polymarket specifically and the first individual athlete of any kind that Polymarket has signed to such an agreement. While the NBA itself is reportedly in separate talks with Polymarket regarding a potential league-level partnership, James’s deal represents a distinct, individually negotiated arrangement.

The NBA does not maintain a specific policy prohibiting players from endorsing prediction market platforms, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to Front Office Sports, though players are barred from promoting specific contracts tied to NBA-related events. The NFL and PGA Tour, by contrast, reportedly do not permit their athletes to endorse prediction markets at all, a restriction that has not applied to James given his status as an NBA player.

James’s individual influence on prediction markets predates his formal Polymarket partnership. Earlier this year, when James became a free agent before ultimately signing with the Philadelphia 76ers, prediction market trading tied to his free agency decision exceeded $270 million in combined volume, according to Covers.com, with contracts specifically wagering on “LeBron’s next team” surpassing $225 million on Kalshi and $40 million on Polymarket, illustrating the significant public interest and trading activity his career decisions can generate even without a formal partnership in place.

Prediction markets have expanded rapidly across professional sports over the past several months, moving beyond individual athlete endorsements to formal league- and team-level partnerships. Major League Baseball announced a multiyear partnership with Polymarket in March, while the National Hockey League struck deals with both Kalshi and Polymarket last year. Polymarket has also secured league-level agreements with the NHL, MLS, Serie A and LaLiga, along with team-specific deals involving the New York Rangers and New York Yankees, and reached a last-minute partnership agreement with the U.S. Open shortly before James’s Saturday announcement. Kalshi, meanwhile, counts athletes including Antetokounmpo, Kyle Kuzma and Breanna Stewart among its investors, alongside an official NHL partnership and team-level agreements with the Chicago Blackhawks and several Major League Baseball franchises, including exclusive arrangements with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox and San Diego Padres.

The rapid growth of prediction markets has not come without regulatory friction. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently affirmed a lower court’s decision dissolving a preliminary injunction that had blocked Nevada from preventing a prediction market operator from doing business in the state, underscoring ongoing legal uncertainty surrounding how individual states can regulate the rapidly expanding industry even as major sports leagues, teams and star athletes continue signing on with the platforms.

With James’s Polymarket campaign expected to launch in full early this week, further details on his specific role, compensation and the scope of the football-focused promotional effort are expected to be announced in the coming days, according to reporting on the partnership. The deal adds another high-profile name to an industry that has moved rapidly from a niche corner of online betting culture into a mainstream fixture of professional sports marketing over the course of the past year.