Polymarket paid influencers to fake winning bets, built dummy websites to pull it off

Pretend BS: Prediction markets reminiscent of Polymarket and Kalshi have exploded in reputation, whilst each platforms cope with regulatory strain and fraud allegations. Whereas Kalshi means to dodge comparisons to unlawful sports activities betting, Polymarket now faces accusations that it paid a community of social media creators to stage pretend profitable bets on digicam.

The Wall Road Journal reports that Polymarket paid not less than 10 influencers over the previous a number of months to put up movies wherein they pretended to win tons of of 1000’s on pretend wagers. The Dow Jones, which publishes the Journal, presently has an information partnership with Polymarket.

In a single instance that typifies the technique, influencer George Makihara posted a video in January that seems to point out him betting that President Donald Trump would say the phrase “McDonald’s” that month. The video ends with a shot of Makihara leaping in direction of the digicam after Trump mentions the restaurant chain on TV, suggesting that the influencer received $100,000.

Nevertheless, additional investigation revealed that Trump by no means stated “McDonald’s” on TV in January, and greater than 50 actual accounts positioned the identical wager that month – all of them shedding. Makihara had filmed the wager on a dummy clone of Polymarket’s web site, then used footage of Trump from months earlier.

The Journal reviewed 1,105 movies from 10 creators, posted between December 2025 and mid-Could. About 70% confirmed a wager, none of them actual.

Throughout 118 of these movies, creators touted practically $900,000 in fabricated winnings on positions that may have misplaced greater than $166,000 in dwell markets. Pink flags included outdated footage and faux URLs – together with one at “poiymarket.com,” a lookalike area designed to resemble the actual website when the “i” is capitalized. Some clips appeared to point out inner take a look at environments utilized by Polymarket’s engineers, and others disappeared after the Journal started asking questions.

Polymarket not too long ago admitted to Politico that it pays influencers to say the corporate, however many don’t clearly disclose that their posts are sponsored.

The Journal additionally discovered that some influencers acquired detailed directions on tips on how to use the dummy websites. Creators had been paid round $2,000 to $3,000 per thirty days and advised to not disclose the association; some added “@polymarket associate” to their bios solely after the Journal made inquiries. One influencer in contrast the apply to how eating places use synthetic or styled meals in advertisements – visually interesting, however not the actual factor.

Since its meteoric rise, Polymarket has courted controversy amid a number of cases of insider trading, different indicators of fraud, and research exhibiting that almost all bettors lose cash. An August 2025 research estimated practically $40 million in income extracted by way of arbitrage on the platform.

A separate Columbia College study found that roughly 25% of Polymarket’s historic buying and selling quantity was probably wash buying and selling, spanning information by way of October 2025. A previous WSJ evaluation discovered that 67% of income on Polymarket went to simply 0.1% of accounts.