Lazio partners with Kaiyun Sports after Polymarket deal cancelled

SS Lazio has found a new commercial partner after being forced to scrap its deal with Polymarket, though it hasn’t looked particularly far and wide regarding the sector its new sponsor is from.

The Serie A club has penned a deal with Kaiyun Sports, an Asia-focused betting and gaming company. As with many other deals in Italian football, the partnership is with Kaiyun’s infotainment and media brand, kaiyunsports.news.

While prediction markets platforms like Polymarket profess that their products are distinct from the betting sector, many in the general public as well as regulators – including the Italian authorities – see little to no difference.

In Polymarket’s case, the firm and its sports event contracts products were declared illegal gambling by the ADM, Italy’s Customs and Monopolies Agency. The duo then decided to mutually call off their three-year, €22m (£18.8m) sponsorship arrangement.

This was a bit of a blow for Lazio, which had been without a front-of-shirt partner for over three years before penning the three-year deal with Polymarket. This space has still not been filled, however, as the kaiyunsports.news deal is a sleeve sponsorship, not a front-of-shirt one.

Some recovery for Lazio?

The deal covers the 2026/27 and 2027/28 Serie A seasons. The kaiyunsports.news logo will appear on Lazio men’s first team matchday jersey sleeves during matches across both seasons.

A Lazio statement read: “kaiyunsports.news is an international sports information platform offering football news, match updates, and sports content to fans around the world. 

“Through its partnership with SS Lazio, kaiyunsports.news aims to further strengthen its international presence, associating its brand with the history, tradition, and international appeal of one of the most established clubs in Italian football.

“The partnership will also offer kaiyunsports.news and SS Lazio the opportunity to engage football fans through selected Club assets, dedicated content, and a series of digital activations over the course of the two seasons.

“SS Lazio and kaiyunsports.news are delighted to launch this collaboration and create new engagement opportunities for football fans internationally.”

The nature of the deal between Lazio and Kaiyun is not unusual in Italian football. Direct sponsorships between betting companies and football clubs have been banned since the 2018 Dignity Decree.

The suitability of this decree is often debated. It was discussed particularly extensively after the Italian national team failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, with the gap in commercial activity left by betting companies often highlighted.

However, betting firms and clubs still find ways to work with each other via these infotainment deals. Betsson’s StarCasino Sport and bet365’s bet365 Scores have both penned deals with Serie A teams, for example.

Kaiyun Sports is no stranger itself to working with European football clubs, having had a presence in English football via now-defunct deals with Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest – though these deals were a source of controversy due to the firm not holding a licence in the UK after 2023.

The company also does not hold a gambling license with Italy’s ADM, according to the authority’s registry, or in any major Western regulated gambling market for that matter.