Polymarket Aims to Launch Trading in US by End of November

Prediction market Polymarket reportedly plans to launch trading in the United States by the end of November.

The company will focus on sports betting in the U.S., and the trading will initially be limited to select participants, Bloomberg reported Tuesday (Oct. 28), citing unnamed sources.

Polymarket did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

The Bloomberg report flagged a page on the company’s website that said: “Polymarket will soon be available for US traders. We’re working hard to get the US platform ready for launch — in the meantime, provide your phone number below to receive updates.”

Polymarket was shut down in the U.S. after a January 2022 decision by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which said the prediction service failed to register with the regulator.

The CFTC fined Polymarket $1.4 million and ordered the company to shut down its markets and give full refunds to users.

Polymarket said in May 2024 that it was “the world’s largest prediction market” and that it raised $70 million of new capital across two previously unannounced rounds.

“I started Polymarket because I believe that market-based forecasts will inevitably become an integral part of how we follow news and find truth on the internet,” Polymarket Founder Shayne Coplan said at the time in a press release. “It has been humbling to see that vision begin to materialize at scale — with so many people relying on Polymarket when following important current events.”

PYMNTS reported on Sept. 4 that when the CFTC issued a no-action letter regarding event contracts, it in essence gave Polymarket a regulatory green light to reenter the American market.

The CFTC’s no-action letter came in response to a request from designated contract market QCX LLC and derivatives clearing organization QC Clearing LLC, both owned by Polymarket.

It allows event contracts without triggering standard swap data reporting and recordkeeping mandates.

PYMNTS reported on Oct. 22 that for regulators, the central challenge is to decide whether prediction markets are genuinely derivatives or essentially bets in disguise, and that for operators, the challenge could be to build compliant, transparent infrastructures around payments, payouts, clearing and liquidity.