Polymarket Paid Creators for Videos Showing Idealized Trades on Site Replicas

Polymarket paid online creators to post videos that depicted lucrative bets and winnings that did not occur. The Wall Street Journal examined 1,100 such videos and reviewed instructional materials the company supplied to the creators. Many videos were recorded on near-perfect copies of the Polymarket website.

A marketing contractor then deployed a social-media army to amplify the clips. Polymarket directed creators not to state that they had been paid by the company. After journalists began asking questions, some creators added “@polymarket partner” to their social-media bios.

Razeen Khan, a college student who worked with Polymarket until March, said the videos were comparable to food commercials that present an idealized image. “We’re depicting what actually happens,” Khan stated. Polymarket said it is “committed to maintaining accurate, fair, and transparent markets” and will conduct an audit of its promotional content.