"This needs to look organic," wrote a Polymarket rep in an internal Discord server for the program.
Hiya! Thanks for reading ReaderGrev. ICYMI, consider watching my investigation into threatening letters sent on behalf of Bobby Kotick to publications covering allegations of sexual misconduct and gender-based discrimination at Activision. It’s a doozy.
Polymarket, the prediction market platform, is paying social media users to quote-retweet content from its branded esports accounts. The program includes over 800 participants, according to posts by a Polymarket representative in an internal Discord, and offers rates ranging from $10 to several hundred per post, paid in crypto.
Paying social media users to engage with content is not illegal, and the Polymarket program has robust guidelines around disclosure and the kinds of quote retweets the company is looking for. But the slight “Paid partnership” tag on X — a common sight on the app, and the only public indication that there’s money changing hands — belies the scale and sophistication of Polymarket’s esports operation, which has more than doubled in size since August. And all the while, in the Discord, Polymarket representatives have repeatedly reminded participants in the program to write posts in a way that should appear “organic,” in what one expert said was an effort to ingratiate the prediction market with esports fans and casual observers.
