Everything is gambling now: the latest news on prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi
-
Prediction markets want to eat the news
Substack has updated its partnership with betting platform Polymarket, “introducing native tools that make it easier to share, discuss, and debate prediction market data directly on Substack.” Additionally, Polymarket will effectively pay “a cohort of creators,” including Matt Yglesias, to use its data though the newsletter platform’s pilot sponsorships program.
This is just the latest foray of prediction markets into media. Last week, Dow Jones agreed to incorporate Polymarket’s betting data into its “content,” including The Wall Street Journal. A month before that, CNN incorporated Kalshi’s betting odds. In December, CNBC agreed to infuse its programming with Kalshi data. Noted poker player Nate Silver, once a respected stats journalist, is now an advisor for Polymarket.
-
Substack isn’t just known for “platforming and monetizing Nazis” now.
According to Polymarket, “Journalism is better when it’s backed by live markets.”
Screenshot: @Polymarket (X)
-
It’s MAGA v Broligarch in the battle over prediction markets
Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about the love-hate (but mostly hate) relationship between Silicon Valley and Washington. I hope everyone got to celebrate George Washington’s birthday in their preferred manner: skiing, staycationing, subscribing to The Verge if you haven’t already, etc.
Political alliances are rarely permanent, so it’s somewhat predictable that the MAGA-tech bro alliance seems to have fallen apart in the span of a single year. Which side the administration would actually choose, though, was more difficult to foresee.
-
Nevada sues to block Kalshi’s prediction betting market
Image: The Verge
Nevada is suing to block the prediction market platform Kalshi from allowing residents to place bets on the outcomes of events, including elections and sports games, as reported earlier by Business Insider. The lawsuit adds to a growing number of legal battles across the country, claiming that Kalshi is harming the state’s gambling market by operating without a proper license and by allowing users under 21 to use the platform.
The state of Nevada filed the lawsuit just hours after a federal appeals court denied Kalshi’s request to block Nevada from taking action against the company. As prediction betting platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket become more popular — allowing users to place bets on everything from election outcomes to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — state lawmakers have had to grapple with how to regulate them. But putting local restrictions on prediction betting markets may prove difficult, as the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is rallying against state-level regulations.
-
Polymarket ran a popup ‘free grocery store’ in NYC because it has ‘market’ in its name.
Curbed described the scene as “bleak” and noted that many waiting in line for the promised free Tide Pods and milk (which was apparently purchased at an Aldi before being stocked on the popups’ oddly orderly shelves) had never heard of Polymarket and didn’t intend to place bets there. When Curbed asked why:
Because of the word market within Polymarket, per Josh Tucker, a company executive. Get it? Daf Orlovsky, a creative director, said it could work — “these ideas that don’t seem possible could be brought to life at tech-market speed,” he said.
-
Giannis Antetokounmpo claims “We all on Kalshi now.”
First, no, we’re not, and second, I’d be happier if he said he was joining the Celtics than joining the prediction markets mess, as the still-on-the-Bucks superstar says he’s “joining Kalshi as a shareholder.”
Is this better or worse than the days when every athlete was pitching an NFT scheme/scam?
-
Polymarket and Kalshi play Nino Brown.
While being banned from the Super Bowl, the two large prediction markets have suddenly felt overcome by the spirit of giving in New York City this week. Kalshi advertised a $50 giveaway today, and Polymarket announced what it says will be “New York’s first free grocery store” when it opens on February 12th.
-
Portugal orders Polymarket to shut down.
Polymarket — the same platform someone made thousands of dollars betting on Nicolás Maduro’s arrest — has 48 hours to cease operations in Portugal after users wagered more than 103 million euros (~$120 million) on the outcome of the country’s presidential election, according to a report from CoinDesk.
Political betting is illegal in Portugal, and its gambling regulator says Polymarket doesn’t have a license to operate in the country, CoinDesk reports.
-
Snatching Maduro was all about the spectacle
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
On December 31st, a brand-new account on Polymarket placed a bet: Nicolás Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, would be out of office by the end of January. It was the first in a series of increasing bets. On January 3rd, the US bombed the Venezuelan capital, kidnapped Maduro and his wife, and killed at least 80 people along the way. The account cashed out with almost half a million dollars.
It would be a misread to describe the surprise invasion of Venezuela as imperial expansion driven by the dictates of capitalism; it is, somehow, worse. Normal capitalism requires a working relationship with reality. Normal capitalism thrives on predictability. The Trump administration is behaving like gambling addicts chasing clout in an attention economy. Venezuela is a fucking meme stock.
-
Someone made a ton of money betting on Maduro’s capture
Screenshot: Terrence O’Brien / The Verge
Shortly before the US military launched an attack on Venezuela and captured President Nicolás Maduro, an account on Polymarket made some very suspiciously timed investments. The prediction market had been running bets on when or if Maduro would be removed from power, with prices for “out by January 31, 2026” as low as $0.07 late Friday evening. But within 24 hours of the military action, a newly created account invested tens of thousands of dollars, racking up several hundred thousand in profits.
The account was created less than a week ago and invested over $30,000 the day before the assault, turning a profit of over $408,000. The activity was flagged on social media, with people speculating that the person placing the bet was acting on inside information and perhaps even worked at the Pentagon. Joe Pompliano, an investor and podcaster, quickly pointed out on X that “Insider trading is not only allowed on prediction markets; it’s encouraged.”
-
Kalshi and Polymarket keep partnering with fake newsbreaker accounts on X.
Meanwhile, The Athletic is the latest (following Awful Announcing and Front Office Sports) reporting on sports misinformation X accounts like “Emma Vance” and “Scott Hughes” have spread while sporting those site’s affiliate badges.
-
Everything is gambling now
Here’s a list of things you can bet on, right this second. This year’s Super Bowl winner, sure. The winner of Survivor season 49, okay. But the number of gifts Santa will deliver this year? The number of tweets Elon Musk will send in the next 7 days? How much money Avatar: Fire and Ash will make at the box office? The next president of of Portugal? On Polymarket and Kalshi, if you can dream it up, you can probably bet on it. Welcome to the age of the prediction market.
On this episode of The Vergecast, we try to figure out where prediction markets came from, and why they’ve become so popular. Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal joins the show to track the rise of Polymarket and Kalshi, explain their controversies and ultimate acceptance, and put these companies in their correct place in the economy. Most of all, he helps us figure out if there’s actually something new happening here, or if the betting has been happening forever.
-
Election night at Kalshi HQ
Photo: Kalshi
This is an excerpt of Sources by Alex Heath, a newsletter about AI and the tech industry, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.
At 8PM on election night in New York City, I arrived at an unmarked office building in the Meatpacking District.
-
Here’s the $2,000 fully AI-generated ad that aired during the NBA Finals
If you’ve been on social media lately, you might’ve seen the unsettling AI slop videos showing AI-generated people in wild scenarios or just speaking a bunch of nonsense. On Wednesday night, the betting platform Kalshi decided to take this trend outside the social sphere by putting a nonsensical AI-generated ad in front of the millions of viewers watching the NBA Finals — and it apparently cost just $2,000 to make.
The AI-generated highlights various things “people” are betting on, like whether the Oklahoma City Thunder or Indiana Pacers will win the NBA Finals, how many hurricanes will occur this year, and whether the price of eggs will go up this month. It flashes between scenes of an elderly man wearing a cowboy hat while carrying a chihuahua, someone swimming in a pool of eggs, and an alien chugging beer.
-
Are prediction markets gambling? Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev is betting not
Image by The Verge / Photo: Robinhood
Today, I’m talking with Vlad Tenev, the cofounder and CEO of Robinhood, which is one of the most well-known consumer finance apps in the world. It started as a way to open up stock trading, but the company’s ambitions have grown over time — and they’re getting even bigger.
Just a day before Tenev and I talked, Robinhood announced it would soon be offering bank accounts and wealth management services, which would allow Robinhood to be involved with your money at every possible level.
-
Polymarket quietly raised more money before the FBI raided the CEO’s apartment.
Coplan recently raised, but has yet to announce, a $30 million round of funding at a $350 million valuation. And in recent conversations with investors (a surprising number of whom passed on the round, which was less than Coplan hoped to raise), I’m told he was noncommittal about whether the company would work to get the Commodity Futures Trading Commission license it needs to operate in the US.
-
The FBI reportedly seized the phone of Polymarket’s CEO.
It wasn’t immediately clear what prompted the FBI’s search of [Shayne] Coplan, the 26-year-old entrepreneur behind one of the most successful prediction markets in history. But Polymarket quickly tied the raid to its track record in the recent presidential election, in which bettors on its platform correctly anticipated that Donald Trump would beat Vice President Kamala Harris.
Bloomberg also reports that Polymarket is being investigated by the DOJ for allegedly letting users in the US place bets on the site.
-
Why Robinhood’s CEO thinks prediction markets are here to stay
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
This week’s presidential election introduced a lot of people to prediction markets.
Kalshi was the number one app in the App Store on Election Day. The CEO of Polymarket claims the Trump campaign first realized they were winning from his startup’s stats, which showed them winning by a landslide hours before news networks called the race. There’s a sense in some tech and finance circles that these betting markets are now a better “wisdom of the crowd” indicator than polls.
-
Presidential betting platform Kalshi loads up on debt.
The startup has received “tens of millions from investors in short-term loans“ to make sure it can cover election bets:
Like most brokerages, the company offers instant funding to new users. This means users can start trading right away, even though it may take two to three business days for the funds to be officially transferred from the customer’s bank account to Kalshi’s.
-
Robinhood admits it’s just a gambling app
US citizens can gamble on the upcoming election on Robinhood, the financial nihilism app announced. Robinhood has termed this “unlocking a new asset class that democratizes access to events as they unfold.”
Let’s pause — I would like to reflect on this incredible phrase, about an asset class that democratizes access to events as they unfold. See, I thought we all had access to the events of the election because we all exist in reality and can find out about them. But apparently, if we can’t gamble on an event, it isn’t happening. This is a fascinating vision of metaphysics, and I would like to hear more about it. No one bet on my birth, for instance, and thus there is no asset class relating to my existence. So am I real?
