It’s a new era for UFC now, officially. The ink is barely dry on their historic $7.7B partnership deal with Paramount+, and they have already made another groundbreaking move. On November 13, 2025, TKO Group Holdings, the parent company of UFC, finalised a new multiyear deal with Polymarket!

The arrangement aims to integrate fans actively into the watching experience and make real-time outcomes based on the prediction model. It’s a one-of-a-kind agreement that will make the UFC betting market function more like financial markets, and it makes UFC and Zuffa Boxing the first sports organizations to incorporate prediction market technology into live events. And that’s not all.

Ariel Emanuel, the executive chair and CEO of TKO, praised the deal and touted it to unlock a newer dimension in combat sports. “By partnering with Shayne and his team at Polymarket, we’re unlocking a new dimension of fan engagement. Integrating Polymarket with the UFC and Zuffa Boxing live experience will help fans interact with these events in real time, transforming passive viewership into active participation,” said Emanuel. What can we expect then?

Polymarket has a history of expanding its groundbreaking predictions model to other sports like Ice Hockey. Likewise, in UFC, a dynamic scoreboard will visualize global fan sentiment and momentum shifts during fights. Not just that, it will take a data-driven approach. Offering visualizations, illustrations, and dynamic analysis. Using that, fans can take certain positions throughout the fights, making it a distinctive deal for UFC.

“Few sports generate emotion and debate like the UFC. By bringing prediction markets to the broadcast and arena, we’re giving fans a new way to be part of the action — not just watching outcomes but watching the world’s expectations evolve with every round,” said Polymarket CEO, Shayne Coplan. He aims to integrate fans actively and transform passive viewing into active involvement. And the Polymarket CEO also has an ecosystem in place to do that.

The deal makes Polymarket the official prediction partner for UFC, along with Zuffa Boxing. Fans will experience several aspects of it, ranging from ‘Social Series’ to Brand activations. For context, Polymarket plans to drive new content initiatives post-fight, which will highlight potential matchups and burning topics to trigger widespread discussion. As for the Brand activations aspect, Polymarket will gain significant visibility from UFC’s marquee events, a quid pro quo arrangement. But that’s not all, because while the deal isn’t your traditional betting, it brings something else altogether.

Polymarket’s CEO explains a crucial part that his deal brings for the fans

Unlike traditional betting, where fans get fixed odds and place bets per or in-play, and also involves a house vig, the Polymarket deal brings a dynamic ‘shares’ like scenario.  In that, prices will fluctuate like stocks, and there won’t be a house vig, nor fixed odds. However, the major change that the Polymarket deal brings is still the trading of the ‘positions’ fans would take throughout the game.

“It starts with who wins, but what’s exciting about our approach is that you can actually buy and you can trade just like a stock throughout the fight,” said Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan. Not just that, Coplan also highlighted incorporating “customer feedback” to ensure regular improvements in the model. ” You can buy and sell and buy and sell as the fight swings the momentum swing. So we’ll start with that, and then we’ll take it from there based on customer feedback and what people love,” said Coplan.

Trading in-game positions like stock markets might surely bring several new aspects that would need to be addressed. For instance, critics claim that it blurs the line by gamifying events in a similar way to betting. Especially since UFC was recently under an FBI probe for suspicious wagering activity. All in all, it remains to be seen how all of it pans out. For now, the deal structure is in place, and to make it a reality, UFC events will be broadcast exclusively on Paramount+ starting from 2026.