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Court documents from a now-settled legal dispute between Fanatics and prediction-market platform Polymarket have revealed that Fanatics founder Michael Rubin and Fanatics Betting and Gaming chief Matt King personally invested in rival exchange Kalshi before Fanatics launched its own prediction-markets product.
The Borod Dispute
The case centered on Ari Borod, a former Fanatics executive who left the company at the start of 2026 to take a senior role leading sports partnerships at Polymarket. After his departure, Fanatics filed in Florida seeking a court order to block the move, arguing that Borod was bound by contractual obligations and had access to sensitive internal information.
Borod contested both claims. He argued his contract contained no post-employment non-compete clause and that Polymarket did not compete with Fanatics’ core operations. He also stated he had informed the company of his planned departure ahead of time and offered assistance with the transition. Both sides told the court in early February that the matter had been resolved.
Kalshi Investment Disclosed in Filings
Although the lawsuit is closed, the documents it produced have disclosed details that extend well beyond the employment dispute. Borod’s submission stated that he believed Rubin and King had made personal investments in Kalshi, one of the leading federally regulated prediction exchanges in the US, before Fanatics entered the space with its own product late in 2025.
The disclosure raises questions about how Fanatics leadership was positioned across competing platforms during the period when the company was designing its own prediction-markets offering. Neither Rubin nor King has publicly commented on the reported investments.
The filings also indicated that Fanatics had explored acquiring a designated contract market to build out its own exchange infrastructure, rather than operating through a third-party platform. Borod stated he had limited visibility into those discussions and was not aware of the outcome.
Sports League Access at the Center of the Dispute
Another element of the complaint involved allegations that Borod had worked to establish relationships between Polymarket and major US sports organizations, specifically the NBA and MLB. Borod responded that he had joined conversations already in progress rather than initiating them. Polymarket’s move to hire someone with existing sports-industry relationships is consistent with the platform’s stated ambition to position itself as the primary destination for sports event trading. The platform has faced its own regulatory friction in Nevada, where a court issued a restraining order against certain contracts earlier this year.
A Pattern Across the Sector
The dispute mirrors an earlier situation in which Fanatics hired an executive away from DraftKings, prompting its own non-compete litigation. Talent competition between sportsbooks and prediction platforms is intensifying as the sector consolidates around the same audience of sports fans and event traders.
DraftKings launched its prediction-markets product across 38 US states in December, and Fanatics followed with its own entry shortly after. Both companies are competing with CFTC-regulated exchanges like Kalshi, which reported $1bn in Super Bowl trading volume this month, and Polymarket, which has historically operated as a crypto-based platform but is now making moves into mainstream sports.
The investment disclosures and the Fanatics acquisition exploration suggest the lines between operator, investor, and infrastructure provider in the prediction-markets space are still unsettled. How those relationships are disclosed, and whether they create conflict-of-interest questions for company leadership, is a matter that regulators and investors are likely to watch as the sector matures.
Source: Gambling News
