Polymarket Paid Creators to Stage Fake Winning Bet Videos, WSJ Reports
The report alleges that Polymarket, a prediction market platform, paid creators to produce deceptive promotional content that misrepresented winning bets, potentially violating stealth marketing regulations.
Reporting from 1 sources: GIGAZINE.
The Wall Street Journal investigated 1,105 videos from 10 creators and found 778 related to Polymarket bets were fake. Polymarket allegedly paid creators to stage wins on dummy sites, review videos, and demand reshoots, while instructing them not to disclose compensation. Polymarket said it will audit promotional content.
The Wall Street Journal reviewed 1,105 videos posted by 10 creators between December 2025 and mid-May 2026, identifying 778 as related to bets on Polymarket. The Journal concluded all were fake. One video showed a creator celebrating a bet on whether President Trump would say "McDonald's" after seeing footage of him doing so, but the footage was two months old; the Journal noted the timing mismatch meant the bet would have lost. Some creators filmed themselves betting on a dummy site called "Po i ymarket" instead of Polymarket, which the Journal confirmed is an official Polymarket test environment. Creators told the Journal they sent completed videos to Polymarket for review, were asked to reshoot if videos were not appealing or seemed obviously fake, and were told not to disclose they were paid. Marketing contractors hired by Polymarket reposted the content. Polymarket told the Journal it is committed to maintaining accurate, fair, and transparent markets and plans to conduct a full audit of promotional content.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.