Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart’s podcast signs Polymarket: what NBA rules allow players, and why the Knicks still can’t make the same deal

The Knicks lost on ring night. A day later, the two most popular Knicks found a new sponsor. On Wednesday, Polymarket’s sports account announced that the Roommates Show, the podcast Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart host with their college friend Matt Hillman, has named the prediction market its presenting podcast partner for the 2026-27 season.

The reaction was not what either side would have wanted. By Thursday the announcement had more than 360,000 views, but it also had more quote posts than likes. Many came from Knicks fans who were unhappy to see the reigning Finals MVP lend his show to a platform that also runs markets on wars and criminal cases. The deal is allowed under NBA rules. It also shows how far prediction markets have moved into basketball while the league is still deciding how close it wants to get to them.

🚨We're honored to announce that the Roommates Show with Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart & Matt Hillman has named Polymarket as their presenting podcast partner for the 2026-27 season. pic.twitter.com/WQE9OUwetg

— Polymarket Sports (@PolymarketSport) October 21, 2026

What the deal actually is

This is a sponsorship of the podcast, not of the players’ basketball careers. The Roommates Show is produced by Playmaker and distributed with iHeartPodcasts. It is filmed in a set modeled on the Villanova dorm room where the three friends met. Polymarket was already on the show before Wednesday’s announcement. The season-four premiere, released Oct. 15, opened its show notes with “Sponsored by Polymarket.” It offered listeners a $25 bonus for signing up with a show code and making a $10 deposit, and it gave the platform its own segment, “Predictions of the Week.” In that first episode, the picks were about the football weekend.

Polymarket shares the episode with other partners. Randy’s Donuts sponsors the headlines segment, AT&T the fan segment and DoorDash the social media bit, and the hosts spend a few minutes on their New Era championship caps. The difference is that Polymarket has the presenting title, the most valuable spot on any podcast’s rate card. Terms were not disclosed.

Why it fits inside the NBA’s rules

The football picks are not a coincidence. Under the current collective bargaining agreement, players may endorse gaming companies through general brand deals or by promoting wagering on sports other than basketball. Their pay cannot be tied to betting on NBA games or to NBA results. The same structure governs LeBron James’ $15 million-a-year Polymarket endorsement: James promotes football markets, not basketball ones.

A podcast is a gray zone, because Brunson and Hart talk about the NBA in every episode. Keeping the branded prediction segment on other sports, and the sponsorship on the show rather than on the players personally, is how deals like this stay on the right side of the rule. Polymarket’s U.S. app also runs as an exchange regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, not as a state-licensed sportsbook. That is the legal argument the whole prediction market industry is making in court against state gaming regulators.

Players can do what the Knicks cannot

The deal also shows the gap between what players can sign and what teams can. NBA teams still cannot sign a prediction market as a partner. The league itself also went into opening night without a league-level deal with Polymarket or its main rival, Kalshi. Daniel Roberts pointed this out on X shortly after Wednesday’s announcement. The NHL has both companies as official partners, and Major League Baseball has an exclusive deal with Polymarket.

At Madison Square Garden, that gap is easy to see. In January, MSG Sports and the Rangers named Polymarket the hockey team’s official prediction market. In May, Kalshi signed a multiyear deal with Madison Square Garden itself and put its name on a concourse inside the arena. Bill King of Sports Business Journal reported at the time that Kalshi used the arena entrance to promote a playoff menu headlined by Knicks-76ers. It could do that through the building’s deal, without a Knicks deal, which the NBA does not allow. Polymarket answered on ring night. Photos posted on X on Tuesday showed the company handing out what was billed as 5,000 “Brunson egg and cheese” sandwiches outside the Garden, a nod to the bodega order that went viral during the title run.

So both companies are now attached to the Knicks without being Knicks partners. Kalshi is in the building, and Polymarket has the team’s two most marketable players, through their podcast.

The awkward timing for the league

The announcement came eight days after the NBA and WNBA said they would launch a responsible gaming campaign with the National Council on Problem Gambling. The campaign is aimed at young adults and covers sports betting and prediction markets together. “As the ways people engage with sports continue to evolve, it is important that fans understand the risks associated with putting money on sports outcomes,” said Scott Kaufman-Ross, the league’s head of media distribution and partnerships, when it was announced on Oct. 13.

Three days later, the league told its sportsbook partners to drop opening-tip bets and single-player under parlays. In that memo it acknowledged that prediction markets, where it has no partner and limited reach, are the hardest place to apply the same limits. In April, the NBA also asked federal regulators to bar prediction markets on player transactions.

None of that stops a player-hosted show from taking the money. It does explain the anger in the replies. One widely shared response pointed out that the league had just started warning fans about these products and asked why an active-player podcast was the exception. The honest answer is that the rules were written for sportsbooks, and they leave room for this kind of deal.

What it is worth, and what comes next

For Polymarket, Brunson and Hart are a cheaper way to reach the fans it wants than a global star. The company is reportedly paying James $15 million a year. Kalshi already has a star of its own: Giannis Antetokounmpo became a shareholder before last season’s trade deadline. A presenting deal with the most popular player podcast in New York reaches a young, engaged audience every Thursday for the price of a podcast sponsorship.

For the league, the bigger decision is still ahead. If the NBA signs its own prediction market partner, as it was reported to be nearing before the season, team deals like the one Kalshi wanted with the Knicks could follow. Then the line between “the show” and “the team” would matter much less. Until that happens, the money will keep reaching NBA players through podcasts, endorsements and arena concourses. The Knicks will keep getting the attention without the sponsorship revenue.