Polymarket, the prediction market operator, paid social media influencers to film and post staged videos showing fake bets and fake winnings on its platform, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation. The report drew on hundreds of videos, internal documents, and interviews with influencers who worked with the company.
Although Polymarket has been blocked in the United States since 2022, the videos were aimed mainly at Americans. The goal was either to attract users who could still access the site through VPNs or to support lobbying efforts to pressure regulators and lawmakers to legalize the service. The Journal reviewed 1,105 videos from 10 influencers hired through a contractor, posted between December 2025 and May this year.
In 70% of the videos, influencers placed bets on Polymarket with a combined face value of $1.9 million. None of those bets were real, because they were made on company-created clones of the site that closely resembled the original, sometimes differing only by a minor typo such as poiymarket.com. Of the videos, 118 also showed fake wins based on old or fabricated news reports, totaling $900,000. Had the wagers been genuine, they would have produced losses of $166,000.
One clip showed an influencer winning $100,000 on a bet that Donald Trump would say “McDonald’s” that month. In reality, the underlying news clip was two months old, and 50 real Polymarket bets on that outcome lost. Polymarket told influencers to hide the fact that they were paid, at $2,000 to $3,000 a month, and they only added partner disclosures after the Journal contacted them. A social media marketing firm promoted the clips through a network of accounts focused on the U.S. market.
Influencers said Polymarket reviewed every video and rejected ones that were not convincing enough or looked obviously fake, asking for retakes and providing scripts for what to say. The company said it plans a broader review of its advertising content and is committed to accurate, fair, and transparent markets.
