Polymarket's viral videos showed people winning big, but the bets were fake
An investigation found that Polymarket paid content creators to stage fake betting wins, generating over 140 million views.
Polymarket, a prediction market platform seeking CFTC approval to return to the US market, has come under scrutiny after The Wall Street Journal uncovered a fake betting campaign. The review of 1,105 videos from 10 creators identified fake bets totaling $1.9 million. Among these, 118 videos showed creators reacting to outdated footage or fake headlines suggesting they had won nearly $900,000, but in reality those bets would have lost over $166,000.
The campaign accumulated more than 140 million views on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, according to analytics provider Tubular. Polymarket hired and worked closely with a marketing firm that enlisted a "social-media army" to repost content from 10 specific creators. The Journal reviewed nearly 20,000 messages from a chat group for Polymarket's content-creating contractors, along with instructional documents and videos.
Creators were instructed to make their posts seem "personal and organic," avoid using the word "Polymarket" in their account names, and not disclose that they were paid. They received $2,000 to $3,000 per month. Initially, they did not identify themselves as paid by Polymarket, but after the Journal started inquiring, some added "@polymarket partner" to their bios.
The investigation found discrepancies between the real Polymarket site and fake ones used by creators. One password-protected website used the misspelled URL "poiymarket.com," which is indistinguishable from "polymarket.com" when the "i" is capitalized.
