LeBron James' primary employer is the Philadelphia 76ers.

But over the next year, James will be paid more for his endorsement of Polymarket than he will by the NBA franchise, according to Front Office Sports.

FOS is reporting the 41-year-old James is getting $15 million annually from the controversial prediction market. Meanwhile, the billionaire basketball star took a steep discount 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.

A Polymarket spokesperson declined to confirm or deny the specifics of James' contract with the Daily Mail, while James' agent, Rich Paul, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Like the deal he signed with online sportsbook DraftKings in 2024, James' promotion of Polymarket will focus on promoting football and not basketball, according to FOS. NBA players are prohibited from endorsing NBA-related prediction markets, but there is no league rule preventing James from partnering with Polymarket on football event contracts.

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.'

Of course, Polymarket denies being a betting platform, and instead defines itself as a prediction market.

Like Kalshi, Polymarket and other prediction markets consider themselves to be 'exchanges' rather than 'sportsbooks' because they don't operate as the house. Rather, they are described as a conduit for two players.

As a result, prediction markets face fewer taxes and are more widely available because they're not being prohibited, or even regulated, by individual states.

Rather, prediction markets are under the federal jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), thereby giving Kalshi, Polymarket and similar websites access to massive markets like California and Texas, where sports gambling is currently illegal.

Prediction markets can also access customers below the age of 21, which is typically the minimum for sports gambling in approving states.

James' deal also puts him in business with the Trump family after years of criticizing President Donald Trump, whose eldest son Donald Jr. sits on the Polymarket board.

Donald Jr. has accused James of being 'dumb as s***' and once described him as a 'POS [piece of s***]' on social media.

'Is there a bigger b**** in pro sports than LaSnitch?' Trump Jr. asked in 2021 after James had two fans ejected from a Pacers-Lakers game in Indianapolis.

James didn't bother responding to Donald Jr., but did previously refer to his father as a 'bum.'

The elder Trump has been a staunch supporter of the prediction markets by pushing for federal and industry oversight rather than state regulation.