Major fantasy sports operator enters prediction markets with Polymarket

PrizePicks — one of North America's biggest daily fantasy sports platforms — just dropped a major collab with Polymarket to dive headfirst into prediction markets. This isn't just another feature drop — it's a strategic pivot beyond their core fantasy sports biz, opening up new revenue streams and diversifying engagement in an increasingly competitive space.

The partnership will integrate Polymarket's event contracts directly into the PrizePicks app, letting users bet on outcomes across sports, entertainment, and cultural events. This rollout syncs with Polymarket's highly anticipated re-entry into the US market — signaling a serious push to bring regulated prediction trading to American users.

Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan said the deal could funnel millions of PrizePicks users into the emerging prediction-markets ecosystem. Translation: this is about scaling fast and capturing a massive new audience.

Polymarket isn't just another betting platform — it's built on the Polygon blockchain, making it fully decentralized, transparent, and intermediary-free. It gained serious clout during the 2024 US presidential election when its market odds accurately predicted Trump's comeback way before traditional polls caught up.

But Polymarket's rapid rise hasn't been without drama. A recent academic paper from Columbia University researchers found that up to 60% of the platform's trading volume may have been artificially inflated through wash trading — where the same entity repeatedly buys and sells to fake market activity and liquidity.

The researchers detected extensive wash trading starting in July 2024, suggesting much of Polymarket's observed growth might not reflect genuine market participation. Cointelegraph reached out to Polymarket for comment but got radio silence at publication time.

Wash trading isn't unique to prediction markets — it's been documented across DeFi. A 2023 Solidus Labs report flagged extensive wash trading on several decentralized exchanges, and more recently, traders have pointed to suspected wash trading on Solana DEXs.