U.S. billionaire Jay-Z in betting race with Miley Cyrus for Super Bowl halftime

American billionaire rapper and Roc Nation founder Jay-Z has become one of the two leading candidates to headline the Super Bowl LXI halftime show in February, according to prediction markets, even though the National Football League has not named a performer.

Traders on Polymarket, a crypto-based prediction market, pushed Jay-Z to the top of the headliner market on Oct. 13, giving him a 68% chance of landing the slot, entertainment site Soap Central reported. By Wednesday afternoon the picture had shifted. Data compiled by odds tracker DeFi Rate showed his Polymarket contract last trading at 68 cents, while singer Miley Cyrus had overtaken him on rival platform Kalshi, where she stood at 53% against his 40%.

The odds are bets placed by traders, not an announcement. The NFL typically names its halftime headliner in the fall. Bad Bunny and Kendrick Lamar, the two most recent picks, were both announced in September. The game will be played on Feb. 14, 2027, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

Why Jay-Z's name keeps coming up

The speculation is unusual because Jay-Z's company already helps decide who gets the job. Roc Nation has worked with the NFL since 2019 as its live music entertainment strategist, a role that covers selecting and producing the halftime show. The original agreement was reportedly worth $25 million over five years, according to ESPN, and was extended in 2024. Roc Nation works with the league and Apple Music, the show's sponsor, on the selection.

Under that partnership, Roc Nation has put on shows by Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, The Weeknd, Rihanna, Usher, Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny. Jay-Z, 56, has never headlined the show himself. Reports have said he turned down an offer to perform at Super Bowl LII, citing the league's handling of quarterback Colin Kaepernick's protests.

Asked about it by Entertainment Tonight in January 2024, Jay-Z said: "I thought it would be selfish to pick myself too early." He added, "Maybe one year. Maybe." Jesse Collins, the producer who works on the show, told Variety in September 2024 that the choice of headliner is "a decision that Jay makes."

His return to the stage this year has fed the talk. In July he played Yankee Stadium in New York to mark 30 years since his debut album, Reasonable Doubt, and 25 years since The Blueprint, his first headline concerts since 2017, according to Forbes. He followed with dates at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London in September.

Cyrus's rise in the markets followed a screenshot that circulated last week claiming Apple Music had briefly posted, then deleted, a silhouette of a female performer. No evidence has emerged that Apple published the image. Cyrus then shared rehearsal photos on Instagram captioned "Bowl rehearsals. See you soon," which some fans read as a hint, though others linked it to a Hollywood Bowl show. Neither Cyrus, Apple, the NFL nor Roc Nation has confirmed a headliner.

Roc Nation backs Muhammad Ali series

The halftime chatter comes as Roc Nation prepares another high-profile release. The Greatest, an eight-episode scripted series about boxer Muhammad Ali, premieres globally on Amazon's Prime Video on Nov. 4. Roc Nation is backing the series alongside actor Michael B. Jordan's Outlier Society, with Ali's widow, Lonnie Ali, as an executive producer.

The series, run by showrunner Ben Watkins and authorized by the Ali estate, stars Jaalen Best as Ali. Its first season follows the boxer from his 1960 Olympic gold medal to his 1964 victory over Sonny Liston, when he took the world heavyweight title as Cassius Clay.

Jay-Z is worth an estimated $2.8 billion, according to Forbes. He first crossed the billion-dollar mark in 2019, and Forbes says his fortune has roughly doubled since then, driven largely by liquor deals. He sold half of Armand de Brignac champagne to LVMH in 2021 and a majority of his stake in D'Usse cognac to Bacardi in 2023. He also owns Roc Nation, a music catalog, an art collection that includes works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, and shares in companies such as Block and Uber.