Author: Jonathan Tannenwald

Major League Soccer announced Monday that it has started a partnership deal with Polymarket, a prediction market platform that’s similar to sports betting but not quite the same.

Prediction markets work by having users choose from two possible outcomes for an event, and they are given a percentage likelihood of each. That plus how much money people put down translates into how much money they make if their pick is correct.

Polymarket is one of a few such platforms, with Kalshi the other big one. The concept has been controversial for many reasons, the biggest being that although prediction markets resemble sports betting, they’re regulated separately from traditional sports betting firms.

The reason behind that is the platforms’ claim that they offer “financial contracts” instead of bets. Those contracts are overseen by the federal government’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission, while sports betting is regulated by each state.

As a result, prediction markets are legal nationwide, although a judge in Massachusetts this month issued an injunction stopping Kalshi from taking sports bets in the state.

In the announcement, which also covers the Leagues Cup that MLS runs with Mexico’s Liga MX, MLS deputy commissioner Gary Stevenson said: “Partnering with Polymarket allows us to integrate prediction markets as a new fan engagement format and position MLS as an early leader among global soccer properties.”

The announcement’s text also said the deal “includes safeguards designed to protect the integrity of MLS and Leagues Cup matches, including independent monitoring of trading activities and collaboration on MLS and Leagues Cup markets offered.”

Another MLS executive, senior vice president of emerging ventures Chris Schlosser, told The Inquirer that the deal is just as much about preserving the integrity of games.

“All of the major prediction markets have markets on MLS — they all offer trading on the league,” he said. “And so we felt like we really needed to lean in on the integrity side and create a framework for protection.”

The ‘best shot’ at ‘ensuring integrity’

Schlosser said MLS and Polymarket will create an “authorized prediction market” status similar to the “authorized gaming operator” status that various sports betting firms have from MLS and other sports leagues.

“The goal,” he added, “is to get those with any any prediction market that has a CFTC license.”

Doing so will “codify a whole number of integrity principles for us,” he said. “Things like approval over markets, things like working with a league on restricted individuals, league staff, club staff, players, referees, owners to make sure that they’re not trading on the sport of soccer.”

“Markets” in this case refers to the offers that prediction markets give the public.

Schlosser notably did not mention players at first. Asked if players have been banned from using prediction markets until now, he said: “Until we updated the guidelines and rules, no, and we needed to make sure that the prediction markets would actually work with us to prohibit that trading.”

FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, has a code of ethics that bans players, officials, and agents from “either directly or indirectly, betting, gambling, lotteries or similar events or transactions related to football matches or competitions.”

Schlosser said that a third-party entity will be employed to “monitor all trading volume on league markets and report any strange occurrences,” and that entity will be involved in any needed investigations.

“It’s a multipronged approach, and we think it gives us the best shot at ensuring the integrity of the competition,” he said.

Controversy over prop bets

There is particular concern among outsiders about the proliferation of prop bets, just as there is in sports around the world. American sports fans need only look at the recent federal charges against college athletes accused of betting on basketball games here and in China, with some players from Philadelphia schools allegedly involved.

Prop bets in soccer could come on whether a player will draw a yellow or red card, or miss a penalty kick, or take a certain number of shots — or something as small as committing a foul in a certain minute. A recent report by sports investigation website PlayTheGame.org cataloged how unlicensed companies around the world are using FIFA’s in-house streaming platform, FIFA+, to offer in-play bets on games shown there from lower-level leagues worldwide.

FIFA also recently struck a deal with global sports data provider Stats Perform “to distribute official betting data and livestreams” to gamblers worldwide.

MLS has had some small scandals over the years with players breaking the league’s rules on traditional sports betting. Prediction markets open up another area of risk, especially since they’re legal nationwide. (Polymarket is not legal in Canada, which has three MLS teams.)

“The prop bets that really can concern us are the bets that are easily single-player controlled,” Schlosser said, listing the ones mentioned above and a few more. “Those are the kinds of things that concern us, and actually that concerns us in all gaming.”

Traditional sports betting is currently legal in some form in 40 states and the District of Columbia. In 2023, MLS started writing to 41 states and territories asking for a ban on prop bets for players getting yellow or red cards. Thirty-three states agreed and banned the bets, and eight states did not.

A list of the states in each column was not available when this article was published.

“Even in sports betting, we’re not always successful in getting the framework that we want,” Schlosser said. “At least in these prediction market agreements, we have, I’d say, a broader right of consultation and approval over the markets that are going to be listed on MLS. And we feel that’s a strong protection to eliminate the markets that may be problematic.”

Becoming more popular, and controversial

The popularity of prediction markets has skyrocketed in recent times. The Financial Times reported last month that from early 2024 through November 2025, the total value of wagers on the platform rose from $100 million per month to over $13 billion.

But that rise has come with many controversies. The first is claims that there aren’t enough regulations to stop insider trading, a matter that has arisen in the platforms offering bets on political events — which is controversial enough on its own.

The industry has deep ties to cryptocurrencies. Polymarket accepts deposits through the Polygon blockchain along with traditional U.S. dollars and credit cards.

During Joe Biden’s administration, the CFTC accused Polymarket of running an illegal exchange, leading to a settlement in which the company agreed to wind down its U.S. operations. But after Donald Trump returned to the White House, the CFTC backed off a probe into the company and it returned to operation.

Polymarket also now has one of President Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Jr., on its advisory board.

Is there a risk of reputational damage to MLS, whether over the expansion of direct ties to betting or Polymarket’s ties to the Trumps? Monday’s announcement did not seem popular with fans on social media, many of whom sent their reactions to this reporter’s post of the news.

“I can’t speak to any of that, but what I can say is we felt like we had a duty to act in the space to protect the integrity of our competitions,” Schlosser said. “These guys have markets on MLS, they have active trading, and it’s growing quickly. In that world, we can’t just stick our head in the sand.”

With that in mind, he continued, the league decided that “this is the best way we saw to ensure that we could actively protect the integrity of the league. That really is the foundation of everything we’ve done in this space.”

We’ll never know how far the Union would have gone in last year’s playoffs had Quinn Sullivan not been sidelined with a torn ACL.

But for as far as he still has to go until he’s back on the field, Sullivan has let any such feelings go from his mind.

“I definitely felt like if I was healthy, I could have contributed, and maybe the game’s a little different,” he said. “But it wasn’t that way, and you know, it’s how the cookie crumbles. It’s all right.”

That doesn’t mean he has moved on from everything along the way. Some of the moments were ones he’ll cherish for a long time: being named the fans’ player of the year, joining his teammates to lift the Supporters’ Shield, and banging the pregame drum before the Union’s first-round rout of Chicago.

The roars from the crowd during the last two of those could have powered Subaru Park for a few weeks afterward.

Quinn Sullivan, out there even with his injury, lifts the Supporters’ Shield to a big ovation:

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— Jonathan Tannenwald (@jtannenwald.bsky.social) October 4, 2025 at 9:52 PM

“It was an amazing experience to really feel part of it,” Sullivan said. “My teammates have been truly great [since then]. Checking in, just asking me stuff, how I’m doing, how are things going in the offseason, were you here the whole time.”

Yes he was, rehabbing under the watchful eye of the Union’s head of health and innovation, Brad Papson.

“So it’s nice to have the guys back,” Sullivan said. “My banter was at an all-time high because I had a lot of time to prepare some stuff.”

Respect from the national team, too

Another memorable moment came when the U.S. men’s national team visited in November. Sullivan got to meet with the squad when it trained at the Union’s facilities leading up to the game vs. Paraguay, then after the Americans won he went downstairs to join them again.

As he arrived at the walkway to the locker room, he was greeted by U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino, who had given Sullivan his first senior caps with the Gold Cup team in the summer. Pochettino put an arm around Sullivan’s shoulder as they passed the media nearby.

Quinn Sullivan met Mauricio Pochettino at the mixed zone to walk (gingerly) toward the #USMNT locker room, which is the Union locker room.

Nathan Harriel and Alejandro Bedoya followed a few steps later.

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— Jonathan Tannenwald (@jtannenwald.bsky.social) November 15, 2025 at 7:56 PM

“Seeing ‘Poch’ was great,” Sullivan said, also praising top assistant Jesús Pérez for catching him on the way. “The whole staff was super-loving and caring and asked a lot of questions, and the support staff and the athletic training department over there has reached out a couple times to see how recovery has been going. So that definitely makes me feel part of it, which is nice.”

Sullivan is one of 70 players Pochettino has called up in his tenure, and no offense is meant by the assumption that he’s not a contender to crack Pochettino’s World Cup roster.

One could say it’s a fact.

But Pochettino and Pérez showed their character by reaching out to him, and the moment stuck with many people who saw it.

“It makes you feel a part of it,” Sullivan said. “I definitely felt that when I was in the Gold Cup camp. I obviously didn’t get a ton of minutes — we talked post-camp that I would love to have played more — and yet here I am injured and they still are caring and supporting. So I really appreciate it, and it goes a long way.”

He has passed the time in a number of ways: from social media content to making his own matcha to helping his girlfriend launch Stavélo, a soccer-themed fashion brand.

Now he is at the point in his rehab where he can start looking forward to returning to action, even though it will still be a while before he plays in a game.

Growing into a locker room leader

It says much about Sullivan and the Union’s emphasis on youth that this season will be his sixth since the 21-year-old attacking midfielder turned pro at the start of 2021. He and 24-year-old Nathan Harriel, who made his first-team debut the same year, are now old heads in the locker room.

“Being injured allows me to play a bigger role in that leadership, because I’m not actively fighting for a spot or trying to prove something,” Sullivan said. “I’m trying to prove something to myself and get back, obviously, but in terms of on the pitch.”

Not only does he embrace it, but he’d take on more of it if offered.

“I’m able to take that role of, whatever people need, they can come to me, ask questions,” he said. “Talking to the new guys, and trying to help them get acclimated to everything. So, yeah, I’m definitely trying to take a bigger leadership role — it’s also a different one. It’s definitely a learning process, but I think I’m getting a pretty good hang of it.”

It’s possible, perhaps even likely, that Sullivan won’t play in another game for the Union until after the World Cup break ends in July, a point he was first to make.

“I’m ahead of schedule already, but I’m still saying nine months [after surgery in early October] is what we’re shooting for,” he said. “When you get in that last month, you’re basically shooting with strength numbers from what I’ve talked to with Brad. … ACL is by no means a linear recovery. I’m cautiously optimistic with how recovery has gone thus far.”

When the time finally comes, it’s also possible that he won’t just be greeted with another roar. He could well become one of the faces of the Union, even more than he already is in advertisements around town with his more-heralded brother Cavan.

“I feel the support from the fans obviously, with winning player of the year last year — that was really nice,” Quinn said. “And to know that I have that support, and that roar when Kevin [Casey, Subaru Park’s public address announcer] says my name over the loudspeaker for the starting lineup. So, yeah, that would be amazing.”

It is, again, not meant to diminish Quinn’s feats or potential to say he is not on the fast track to Europe like Cavan is. If he really excels late this year and next, there could certainly be offers from abroad for him.

But if they are a little slower to come, and if that means the Bridesburg native stays in his hometown for a little while longer, he won’t mind standing in the spotlight.

“I’d love to be the face of this team,” he said. “I mean, I grew up supporting this team. I love this team, I love this city, I feel like I embody what Philadelphia means. I would love if that was the case.”

There have been enough Danish players in MLS recently that when the Union reached out to Japhet Sery Larsen, he didn’t have to look far for advice.

“I have a good friend who plays in San Diego, [Anders] Dreyer, who has spoken really warmly about the league,” Larsen said in a news conference this week from the Union’s preseason camp in Marbella, Spain. “I have a former teammate as well in Cincinnati, Evander, who really enjoys his time here.”

Those are very good connections to have. Dreyer was the league’s Newcomer of the Year last year, delivering 23 goals and 18 assists in 41 games; Evander is a two-time All-Star and Best XI honoree.

But Larsen had an even better expert to call, too.

“I talked to Mikael Uhre a bit because he knows the Union very well, which was really helpful for me,” he said.

If Larsen saw all the little boxes with the journalists’ heads on Zoom, he’d have watched a mass springing to attention.

It wasn’t surprising that Larsen and Uhre know each other, because players cross paths in all kinds of ways in soccer. But it would sure be something to learn Uhre’s opinion of a club that didn’t always treat him well in his last two years in Chester.

“He was really happy about his time here,” Larsen said. “He had some great moments here, I think.”

Yes, he did, and he was barely given a chance to say goodbye — or to receive thanks from the portion of fans who liked him. That makes it even nicer of Uhre to say good things about the Union and living in Philadelphia.

“I had some good talks with the sporting directors and the coaches about what it’s like being in the club, but the hard part is finding out what life is around the training ground and stuff like that,” Larsen said. “So Mikael was really helpful there. Obviously, we talked about [life] in the club as well, but he had only good things to good things to say about the club — he really enjoyed the playing style and the philosophy of the Union.”

It will be up to other players, especially Ezekiel Alladoh, to replace Uhre’s goals and defense-stretching runs. Larsen’s job is to replace another Union stalwart, Jakob Glesnes.

On paper, he has the resumé. Larsen spent the last three years at Norwegian club Brann, won a Norwegian Cup, and played in Champions League qualifiers and the Europa League.

Before that, he spent a year at Bodø/Glimt, a team with a big reputation as a continental Cinderella.

His age matters, too. The Union like to sign younger players whom they can develop and sell later. Larsen is 25, heading toward a player’s peak age period. And the club’s scouts noticed that he wore the captain’s armband at times for Brann, a sign of good intangibles.

“It had a big impact on my decision before joining here,” Larsen said. “I know some more experienced players have left the club now during this winter, so there’s an open spot for taking responsibility and leadership. And I think we have that within the group, but obviously I want to contribute to that as well and help as better as best as possible.”

He arrived in Chester well-briefed on the Union’s high-speed playing style and was excited to play in it.

“I think the coaching staff have a really clear idea of how they want to do things, which I believe suits me quite well,” he said. “[That] had a big impact for me in my decision, which made it easier, but they really talked about their way of thinking in football and their principles.”

Larsen got his first run in a game on Tuesday, and played the first half of the Union’s 1-1 tie with Czech club Sigma Olomouc. Paired with Olwethu Makhanya on the back line — to form what is expected to be this year’s starting centerback duo — he seemed to fit in well enough.

“I thought it was quite obvious the way the coaches want us to play,” Larsen said. “I think we could see the principles coming to life in the game. A lot of the guys are thinking forward the whole time, trying to really express ourselves.”

On Friday, he played the first period of a 2-1 loss to Danish club Nordsjælland that had three 45-minute frames, this time next to young prospect Finn Sundstrom.

Larsen hadn’t been with the Union for long before heading to Spain, and he spent part of the opening week in Chester working off to the side. So he had to jump quickly into the deep end, “a new way of speaking football” as he put it.

“It has been fun and challenging at the same time,” he said. “I’m learning new things every day, but I’m trying to embrace it all, and the coaching staff and the teammates are really helpful in that process.”

Union manager Bradley Carnell did not hesitate to send new signings Ezekiel Alladoh and Japhet Sery Larsen into the fray of game action.

Just two days after the team arrived in Marbella, Spain, for its preseason camp there — which started just a week after the players reported to Chester — the duo played the first half Tuesday in a 1-1 tie with Czech club SK Sigma Olomouc.

Alladoh hadn’t seen live action since the end of the Swedish league season in November, timing that allowed the Union to move to sign him in December.

Larsen’s last game was Dec. 11 in the UEFA Europa League, and when he arrived in Chester, he spent a few days training on his own.

Game reps for a centerback are especially important for building chemistry within the defense. So it mattered that Larsen paired with Olwethu Makhanya to form the Union’s expected centerback duo. They were challenged not just by the opposition but by Carnell’s decision to start reserve team prospect Giovanny Sequera at right back and midfielder Ben Bender at left back.

Neither Alladoh nor Larsen looked out of place, which is fine at this point. The Union’s next scrimmage is Friday in Marbella against Danish club Nordsjælland at 8 a.m. Philadelphia time. (Nordsjælland will stream the game behind the paywall on its website; there’s no word yet if there will be a free option.)

“I think both of them have integrated seamlessly in all sides of the game with us,” Carnell said in a news conference on Thursday. “I think we got to see Ezekiel’s qualities in the game the other day, and potential threats. I think you could see that he’s a real weapon in behind, and just his speed and power and holdup play.”

Carnell praised Larsen, a native of Denmark who, at 25, is the Union’s oldest centerback, for having “come in here and had such a calmness about him, and a real professional working manner about him, and hit the ground running. … I think he’s already establishing some form of foundational leadership capabilities here as well.”

Two transactions

The Union promoted reserve team striker Stas Korzeniowski to the first team this week, a reward for the former Penn striker’s good work with Union II last year and with the first team in preseason this year.

Korzeniowski scored the Union’s goal Tuesday with a well-taken finish, though his promotion was in the works before then.

“Stas has certain qualities and a skill set that we really like,” Carnell said. “And, for sure, it’s far from polished right now, but that’s the journey that he started to take now with us and having him in these environments and just around the team and playing in our way.”

The Union also loaned 18-year-old centerback Neil Pierre to Lyngby of Denmark’s second division, a club in which the Union have had an investment stake for a year and a half. A move like this is a big part of why the Union did the deal, but this marks the first of a transaction of this kind on the books.

Pierre is a marquee prospect, better than the reserves’ level in MLS Next Pro but not ready physically for the top flight. Lyngby is currently atop Denmark’s second division, pushing for promotion after being relegated a season ago.

“Closing the gap between Next Pro, MLS, and then there’s a mid-station there with Lyngby,” Carnell said. “Also going out of your comfort zone is a big one. … Very important for Neil to go and get those experiences, and I think he’ll grow as a person and as a player as well.”

It’s also notable that the loan is just through June, instead of the full year. With MLS stopping for the World Cup after Memorial Day, it really means Pierre won’t be available until the season resumes in mid-July. But perhaps he’ll get a chance in the Leagues Cup in late summer.

Another prospect’s next chance

Malik Jakupovic, the 16-year-old striker who’s getting a lot of hype, was named Thursday to the United States squad for Concacaf’s under-17 World Cup qualifiers next month.

There’s a long history of major Union prospects showing their skills at the under-17 level. The next under-17 World Cup, which now is an annual event, will be played in Qatar in November.

“We’ve seen a couple of good glimpses in training here in preseason that he comes to life and you think, ‘Wow, this is amazing,’” Carnell said of Jakupovic. “And then you just get to remember, ‘Oh right, he’s just joined us for three, four days already in camp.’”

The Union’s coaching staff is well-aware of the hype and is trying to not add too much more.

“We don’t want to put any sort of crazy amounts of pressure on him,” Carnell said. “We want him to have fun, we want him to develop, we want him to learn and grow.”

Goalkeeper Matthew White also made the 21-player roster, and midfielder Willyam Ferreira was picked as an alternate.

News from MLS HQ

MLS announced its roster rules for the year on Thursday, and they included two significant changes.

A year after finally allowing teams to sell players within the league for cash instead of allocation money (basically extra cap space), the league axed its cap of two sales per team per season.

That certainly will benefit the Union, who’ve taken full advantage in selling Jack McGlynn, Dániel Gazdag, and Tai Baribo for big sums. But it also will be welcome leaguewide because it’s a better measure of players’ market values than allocation money’s limits.

MLS also adjusted its transfer windows, the times of year when teams can buy players. The winter window will run from Jan. 26 to March 26, and the summer window will run from July 13 to Sept. 2. The latter has been shifted later in the year, bringing it in line with windows used by other big leagues worldwide.