Polymarket’s Next Bet? It Can Also Be a Media Company

Polymarket’s Next Bet? It Can Also Be a Media Company. On social media, their official accounts post like news outlets, adopting a vernacular that mashes up PopCrave’s frenzied sensibility with Bloomberg’s coverage areas. (The efforts haven’t been wholly reliable: A New York Times analysis earlier this year found that Polymarket’s newsy social accounts have published “false and misleading information. ”)Chief executive and founder Shayne Coplan has referred to the company’s partnership with X as “News 2.

What happened

In a January 2026 announcement about its decision to partner with Polymarket, Wall Street Journal publisher and Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour described the prediction market as a “rapidly growing source of real-time insight into collective beliefs about future events. ” It did not mention that the company’s flagship product remains banned in the US. (Polymarket now has an app that is federally regulated in the United States called Polymarket US, though it offers a narrower range of markets than its original decentralized product. )Not every media outlet is embracing these markets as a potential partner or peer.

The fight over what kind of companies these are could end up in the Supreme Court, but in the meantime, both Polymarket and its even-more-popular archrival, Kalshi, have successfully positioned themselves as new media organizations too. “And three out of four users don't trade, which suggests the informational use case is popular enough to be taken very seriously. ” (Polymarket declined to comment. )Providing data is only a small part of how these companies function as new media entities.

When asked if it considered itself a media company, Such, the spokesperson, tells WIRED that it does not, though the markets themselves have “quasi-media” attributes because they follow the news. More recently, the online trading hub Robinhood—now also a Polymarket competitor with its own prediction market offerings—ran a media subsidiary called Sherwood before winding it down earlier this summer. It has also partnered with a prediction-markets-focused media startup called Eventual, which raised money from venture capital firms like Lightshed Capital as well as serial media entrepreneur and Bustle Digital Group owner Bryan Goldberg, who was also an early investor in Polymarket itself.

“Polymarket's role in shaping media narratives was always a big piece of the puzzle,” Goldberg, who is best known for operating 2010s media brands like Bustle and Elite Daily, tells WIRED.

The wider picture

Much like those two digital media companies once did, Polymarket has put its own spin on engagement via rage-baiting. The social media juggernaut sniffing around the prediction market space isn’t an indication that the company is hungry to get into trading or gambling—it’s more evidence that this is part of the future of media. Meta, despite its best efforts, remains a digital media company, and it’s savvy enough to see that these markets are increasingly part of how people use the internet.

At an event on October 7th, the company says it will host a “conversation on how local AI will shape the next chapter of the PC. ”Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will be in attendance, alongside Windows and Surface chief Pavan Davuluri. The legal battle over whether prediction markets are a form of gambling has overshadowed something else entirely: They’re already a new form of media. Skip to main contentSave this storySave this storyEvery day, a newsletter from the prediction market Polymarket hits my inbox with a subject line that could easily come from any number of politics-focused newspapers or magazines.

0? ”These dispatches are roundups with breathless summaries of the day’s top stories, linking out to corresponding Polymarket markets—yes, this thing will happen; no, it won’t. All kinds of tech startups have launched editorial projects—did you know the alternative dating app Feeld has a surprisingly good magazine? —but the leading prediction markets are entrenching themselves into the mainstream media apparatus in a particularly aggressive way.

What has been reported

Polymarket has partnerships with Dow Jones and Substack, while Kalshi has deals with CNN, CNBC, and Fox Corp. They’ve given Polymarket and Kalshi much-needed boosts in credibility and offered a straightforward introduction to the wider public. Prediction market boosters hype these products as “truth machines,” revealing public sentiment more accurately than polling or traditional reporting; when media outlets decide the odds themselves are newsworthy, they reinforce that message. 0. ” In 2024, the company hinted at even more expansive ambitions, recruiting for an editor in chief role to lead “content and data journalism” efforts.

It never made that hire, although political analyst and media founder Nate Silver came on later that year as an adviser. But on its careers page, the company beckons prospective employees by playing this angle up: “Become the new front page of the internet. ”Kalshi is less inclined to describe itself this way. Financial services companies have jumped into the media sector before, most obviously Bloomberg, which initially focused on providing market data and financial analytics before expanding to include journalism products.

Polymarket doesn’t have a dedicated subsidiary or editorial arm.

What happens next

But it has launched a weekly podcast called What Are the Odds? in partnership with the podcast network Dear Media. It looks an awful lot like the podcaster Amanda Hirsch getting eviscerated on TikTok for creating paid content for Polymarket promoting how people could wager on the outcome of the Lindsay Clancy trial. There are obvious advantages to these companies going all-in on media strategy. Earlier this month, Polymarket launched a group-chat feature called Squads, with the idea that people wagering on its platforms want to socialize and strategize together.

As these companies keep expanding their reach, their media maneuvers will only grow more important. She covers prediction markets, the future of media, and how AI is changing the internet. Lexi PandellThe US Government Launched 3 Previously Unreported Investigations of Polymarket TradesThe agency that oversees prediction markets has investigated Polymarket trades on Biden pardons and the Iran war—and even more potential insider trading at Google, documents obtained by WIRED show.

The report has been compiled by The Daily Waves using information reported across wired.com, theverge.com, theguardian.com. Details are presented according to the information available at the time of publication and may change as authorities, organisers or other relevant parties provide updates.