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Within a common area inside the Polymarket headquarters, Manning skied high to catch a ball from a jugs machine, while he withstood a low tackle from a defender. “Good morning, Eli,” James proclaimed, before the two-time Super Bowl MVP tossed him the football outside an elevator adorned with the Polymarket logo. Seconds later, James exchanged a handshake with Jeter, a Hall of Fame shortstop who won five World Series titles with the New York Yankees. Last month, the Yankees became the first Major League Baseball club to directly partner with Polymarket.
The total cost of the ad has not been divulged by Polymarket, but it is fair to estimate that it fell in the millions given the high expenses of bringing aboard a prominent filmmaker such as Berg. Beyond director fees, Polymarket also had to budget for agency and concept fees, set construction and post-production costs that include visual effects, licensing and sound design. In late-August, Polymarket disclosed that it has sought a $21 billion valuation in a new funding round led by Donald Trump Jr’s venture firm, 1789 Capital.
Polymarket may defend any substantial investment in marketing given the overwhelming impact on customer acquisition that ensued. On Tuesday, Polymarket ranked first on the App Store in downloads for free finance apps, topping archrival Kalshi, Capital One Mobile and prominent payment providers PayPal and Venmo.
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While the Polymarket/Yahoo Finance situation is one of the earliest examples of a severed relationship between a prediction market operator and a media entity, that doesn’t mean those “divorces” will permeate the two industries.
There’s widespread belief that old guard media companies are incentivized to feature event contract data on their sites or reference it in select publications as a way of better connecting with younger readers and viewers.
Then there are the financial implications, namely new revenue streams. Prediction market operators typically pay media companies to integrate their data while some outlets also earn referral commissions for driving new business to yes/no exchanges.
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“So you get the same stable and predictable growth and you get the capital returns. You get no additional risk, and you get the benefits of the new markets and the online opportunities on top of the synergies, which are also pretty significant. So that’s why this makes a lot of sense to us.”
Cirsa CEO Antonio Hostench echoed Angelozzi’s confidence, adding: “On our side, we see this as a great opportunity because as Guglielmo said, there is no overlap between the companies, almost no overlap.
“So we just see creating one of the biggest groups in the world in gaming terms. And we’ll be sharing the long-term plan that Lottomatica has, which is very attractive. So I mean, the risk is minor, and we feel very well protected and joining this long-term plan will be a plus to our people.”