Polymarket, the crypto prediction market that rode the 2024 US election to mainstream fame, has a marketing problem. And by “problem,” we mean an alleged scheme involving fake trades, paid influencers, and replica websites designed to make college kids think betting on prediction markets was a money printer.
A Wall Street Journal investigation found that Polymarket paid college-age content creators to produce more than 1,100 videos featuring fabricated bets totaling around $1.9 million. The creators staged wins worth nearly $900,000, all while concealing their financial relationship with the platform. In English: the videos made it look like random young people were casually printing money on Polymarket, when in reality they were reading from a script and using fake websites.
The playbook and the fallout
The investigation covered videos posted between December 2025 and May 2026, produced by at least 10 content creators. The creators were reportedly instructed to use replica versions of the Polymarket website, not the actual platform, to stage their supposed winning bets.
They were also told to hide any payments connected to the promotions. So viewers had no way of knowing they were watching a paid advertisement disguised as organic content.
