Published on: November 5, 2024, 06:37h.
Last updated on: November 5, 2024, 06:37h.
Polymarket, the popular cryptocurrency-based political betting platform, collaborated with social media influencers to boost engagement ahead of the recent presidential election.
Citing Bloomberg News, it was revealed that Polymarket reached out to meme account operators and finance-specific accounts on social media platforms like Instagram through messages exchanged with Armand Saramout, the senior director of growth at Polymarket.
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,” a company spokesman said in a statement to Bloomberg.
Several Instagram influencers acknowledged their relationships with Polymarket, but the financial terms of their agreements were undisclosed.
Polymarket’s Embrace of Influencers
Businesses across various sectors, including casinos and sports betting, often engage social media influencers to promote their offerings, especially as social commerce gains momentum among key demographics such as Gen Z and millennials.
Polymarket’s influencer partnerships appear to be yielding positive results as new account signups on the platform surged before the US Election Day. Recent data indicated that both Kalshi and Polymarket were the top two most downloaded free mobile applications in Apple’s App Store leading up to the election, as reported by Casino.org.
Unlike Kalshi and PredicIt, Polymarket lacks regulation in the US and faced a $1.4 million settlement with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in 2022, prohibiting the platform from targeting US customers.
Although accessible in the US, some election bettors may be using virtual privacy networks (VPNs) to access the platform due to this restriction.
Controversy Surrounding Polymarket
Reports suggested that Polymarket instructed influencers to create election betting content targeting customers outside the US to avoid regulatory scrutiny domestically. However, its parent company spent nearly $270,000 on election ads on Facebook and Instagram, according to Bloomberg.
The focus of the ads on former President Trump and the absence of Vice President Kamala Harris raised concerns of bias among critics.
Polymarket defended its approach, stating, “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,” to Bloomberg.