Polymarket Paid Creators for Over 1,100 Videos of Simulated Bets and Wins

Polymarket paid online creators to post videos depicting themselves placing bets and celebrating wins that never occurred. The Wall Street Journal identified more than 1,100 such videos, many filmed on near-perfect copies of the Polymarket website. A marketing contractor deployed a social-media team to amplify the clips.

Polymarket instructed creators not to disclose the payments, though some later added “@polymarket partner” to their bios after questions from journalists. In 118 of the videos, creators reacted to winning bets shown as totaling almost $900,000. Those same bets would have lost $166,000 if placed on the actual platform.

Polymarket stated it is “committed to maintaining accurate, fair, and transparent markets” and plans to audit its promotional content. Many of the videos have since been removed from creator accounts, and sites used in the videos have been taken down.