In addition to building a legendary basketball career, LeBron James has assembled quite the off-court portfolio of endorsements, partnerships, business ventures, and investments. Among those is his lucrative sports apparel brand featuring his logo and name, as well as endorsement deals with Coca-Cola, AT&T, McDonald's, Beats by Dre, and Dunkin' Donuts. However, a recent partnership involving James and an ethically questionable company has drawn criticism.
On Saturday, James shared a 14-second teaser video that begins with the Polymarket logo pictured on the front of a building. It then shifts to someone pressing a "Sports" button as their choice from various elevator buttons. The elevator door opens as James steps out, smiling as he looks around a busy and noisy office.
The video footage fades to a "Polymarket" logo on screen, with Bigxthaplug's "The Largest" playing to close things out. Smith Slams Ben Simmons for NBA Comeback With Kings Many commenters reacted to James's latest tease in the comments, calling him out for choosing to participate in a potential partnership with the company. "Mr Sellout back at it again, this guy will do anything for cash," one commenter wrote.
"Spent your whole life telling kids to chase their dreams then end up selling this to them," someone else replied. Another individual wrote, "Imagine being a billionaire and still selling your morals for a gambling company." "A [expletive] billionaire promoting gambling just to make a couple extra bucks," a commenter said, regarding James's decision. While many label them as gambling apps or websites, Polymarket and Kalshi currently operate as peer-to-peer prediction markets.
Through these markets, users trade contracts against one another based on real-time probabilities. Due to that distinction, they aren't regulated like sportsbook apps and websites, which allow users to place static wagers against a house with fixed odds. Along with that controversy, there have been others.
Polymarket has been accused of running fake viral marketing campaigns to attract customers. A Wired report looked at one example of insider trading on Polymarket. They have also been called out for spreading misleading political information.
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