NBA superstar LeBron James will reportedly be paid more for his endorsement of Polymarket than he will by the NBA franchise.
According to Front Office Sports, the 41-year-old Philadelphia 76ers star is getting $15 million annually from the controversial prediction market.
This comes after the billionaire basketball star took a pay cut from his previous contracts to sign a two-year, $8 million deal with the Sixers.
James has not earned less than $10 million for a single NBA season since 2006, when he was still on his rookie contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and earned $53 million for the 2025-26 season with the Los Angeles Lakers.
For his career, James has more than $581 million in NBA earnings, according to Spotrac.
He was recently featured in a new ad for Polymarket that also included Spike Lee, Reggie Bush, and former NFL star Richard Sherman, as well as Derek Jeter, Sue Bird, and Eli Manning, among others.
James has faced backlash over the partnership, as many fans were quick to dig up the NBA legend’s previous comments on sports gambling and its impact on athletes.
‘I mean, it’s weird that some of our regular fans that love the game kind of only care about a parlay now,’ James said in 2023, as quoted by the Los Angeles Times. ‘I guess that’s the word everybody is using. It’s kind of taken some of the integrity out of the game because people are kind of really only caring about the betting.
‘I mean, it’s always [happened],’ James continued. ‘I mean, listen, people have been betting on games since Arnold Rothstein set the bet … on the World Series [in 1919]. Come on, come on. So, it’s been going on for years. But it’s legalized now. Is it legalized in every state now? The majority, right? I think it’s in 38-plus states. So, I mean, to each his own.’
Over the years, Polymarket has denied being a betting platform, and instead defines itself as a prediction market.
