Prediction market platform Polymarket has agreed a multi-year deal to become the new main sponsor of Italian Serie A football club Lazio.
Under the agreement, Polymarket branding will appear on the front of players’ shirts. The logo was in place for the first time during the club’s match against Napoli on 18 April.
Through the new deal, the platform will also become the team’s official fan intelligence and digital insight partner. This will see it work with Lazio to explore models of fan engagement, covering initiatives across analysis, forecasting and advanced digital content.
The partnership will cover the remainder of the 2025-26 season as well as the 2026-27 and 2027-28 campaigns. There will also be an option to extend for the 2028-29 season.
Lazio added that the agreement with Polymarket will be worth more than $22m (€18m).
Polymarket and Lazio target new experiences
Commenting on the link-up, Lazio president Claudio Lotito said it would support the club’s global growth plans. He added that working with Polymarket would help the team identify new opportunities for expansion.
“Polymarket is a partner that interprets the future, capable of reading and analyzing trends through innovative tools,” Lotito said. “This agreement strengthens Lazio’s international growth plan and confirms the club’s ambition to position itself as an increasingly modern, open and competitive organization within the evolving global sports landscape.”
Matthew Modabber, chief marketing officer of Polymarket, added: “Lazio represents a historic institution with a forward-looking vision. We are proud to collaborate with a club that shares our approach to innovation and data-driven value creation, with the goal of building new experiences and models within the world of sport.”
Another step forward for Polymarket
The deal represents Polymarket’s latest link-up in the professional sports sector. However, it is its first true sponsorship agreement, outside of its core data partnerships.
Other recent deals struck by Polymarket include becoming the exclusive prediction markets partner of Major League Baseball. This permitted Polymarket to use league branding and official data on its platform.
It also has deals in place with the National Hockey League and the New York Rangers, along with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. As for soccer, it is partnered with both Major League Soccer and Spain’s LaLiga.
Top politician challenges Polymarket-Lazio deal
However, it may not all be plain sailing for Polymarket in Italy. Stefano Vaccari, deputy of the Democratic Party and secretary of the Presidency of the Chamber, has called for an “’immediate investigation’” into the new partnership with Lazio.
According to Gioco News, he said the deal raised “serious and unavoidable questions” over what he viewed as a “grey” area. As such, he issued a call for an investigation by both the he government and Customs and Monopolies Agency.
“We are talking about a subject that operates in a grey and controversial area from a regulatory point of view and which, due to its characteristics, recalls dynamics similar to gaming and betting, in a context in which operators authorized in Italy are instead subjected to stringent constraints and very clear prohibitions,” Vaccari said,
He added that the sponsorship is “wrong and profoundly inappropriate because it risks bypassing in spirit those protections that the legislator has introduced and must further introduce to contain the commercial pressure on the game, especially in the world of sport, which has a very strong impact on young people and the most exposed groups”.