Polymarket Accused of Using Staged Videos Showing Big Wins in Ad Campaign

^{Pictured: Shayne Coplan, CEO of Polymarket}

The prediction market platform Polymarket has faced questions over its advertising strategy following an investigation by The Wall Street Journal. According to the newspaper, the company allegedly used young influencers to promote the platform by showing “successful” trades and large wins on social media.

Some of those scenes, however, were staged: the videos used lookalike sites to show trades without any real money involved. The clips created the impression that users could easily make money on the platform.

In total, the promotional videos generated more than 140 million views on social media, according to the investigation. Paid comments were also allegedly used to imitate real users and their experiences.

According to the WSJ, some creators may have been paid thousands of dollars a month to appear in such videos. At the same time, it was not always clear that the content was advertising.

The investigation said the campaign was not limited to influencer videos. Marketing contractors allegedly built a wider promotional system that mimicked ordinary user activity and artificially boosted discussion in comment sections.

Some videos also contained links to lookalike Polymarket pages that were visually almost identical to the original platform. According to the WSJ, small differences in the interface and repeated elements in the content helped identify the staged nature of part of the campaign and distinguish it from genuine user stories.

Copy of a Polymarket website page

After the article was published, some videos were removed, while social media platforms began suspending accounts linked to the campaign. Polymarket, for its part, has not acknowledged the allegations that it paid creators for staged videos, but said it is reviewing its advertising strategy and strengthening oversight of promotional activity.