Polymarket, the popular cryptocurrency-based political betting platform, has reportedly paid social media influencers to boost engagement ahead of this year’s presidential election. According to messages obtained by Bloomberg News, Armand Saramout, Polymarket’s senior director of growth, communicated with various social media personalities, including operators of meme accounts and finance-specific accounts on platforms like Instagram.
A company spokesman disclosed to Bloomberg that Polymarket reached out to influencers across the political spectrum to promote their data and drive traffic to polymarket.com. “We’ve reached out to influencers on both sides of the aisle to promote our data and drive traffic and eyeballs to polymarket.com, where 99% of visitors consume news and never place a trade,” the spokesman said.
Several Instagram influencers confirmed their interactions with Polymarket, although the financial details of their agreements were not revealed. The practice of leveraging social media influencers is common across industries such as casinos and sports wagering, particularly as social commerce continues to grow among Gen Z and millennials.
Polymarket’s strategy appears to be yielding results. Earlier this year, it emerged that the platform was seeing a surge in new account signups as the US Election Day approached. In a recent report, Casino.org noted that both Polymarket and its rival, Kalshi, were among the top two most downloaded free mobile applications in Apple’s App Store in the days leading up to the election.
However, unlike Kalshi and PredicIt, Polymarket is not regulated in the US and was barred from targeting US customers following a $1.4 million settlement with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in 2022. Despite this, the website remains accessible in the US, and some American election bettors could be using virtual private networks (VPNs) to circumvent restrictions.
Polymarket has also been reported to instruct some influencers to create election-related content aimed at audiences outside the US to avoid regulatory scrutiny. Nevertheless, its parent company spent nearly $270,000 on election ads on Facebook and Instagram, according to Bloomberg. This expenditure generated criticism for potential bias, as nearly half the ads featured former President Donald Trump alone without showcasing Vice President Kamala Harris individually.
Addressing these concerns, a Polymarket spokesman told Bloomberg, “Any suggestion that Polymarket caters to a single party or demographic hasn’t been paying attention to the rapidly shifting market odds over the course of this campaign or to our distinctly nonpartisan and transparent approach to prediction markets.”
