Lazio Signs Two-Year Deal With Kaiyun Sports Media Outlet

Italian football club Lazio has announced a partnership with sports media outlet kaiyunsports.news, owned by Chinese iGaming operator Kaiyun Sports. The agreement includes placement of the outlet's branding on the sleeve of the first men's team's Serie A jerseys for the 2026/27 and 2027/28 seasons. The financial value of the deal was not disclosed.

The partnership comes two weeks after Lazio terminated its agreement with prediction market platform Polymarket, following a decision by Italian regulator ADM to blacklist the platform and order internet service providers to block access to its website within Italy. No further details were disclosed regarding the specific terms of the new sleeve sponsorship or the scope of activities planned under the Kaiyun Sports media partnership.

The sequence of events illustrates the regulatory pressures Italian football clubs face when navigating sponsorship relationships tied to gambling and prediction market entities, with Lazio pivoting from a blacklisted prediction market partner to a media-branded deal linked to a licensed-adjacent Chinese operator. The shift underscores how clubs continue seeking gambling-industry sponsorship revenue while attempting to remain within the boundaries of Italy's regulatory framework for such partnerships.