Polymarket has begun live testing its US exchange by quietly opening up to some users and matching trades ahead of its planned relaunch in the American betting market.
The prediction platform says the exchange is fully functional, with select users placing bets on real contracts, as it moves to complete the final steps needed to open up.
“The US Exchange is actually live and operational and people are being onboarded,” founder Shayne Coplan said at Cantor Fitzgerald’s Crypto & AI Infrastructure Conference in Miami. “It’s effectively in a beta test.”
Bloomberg reported last month that Polymarket would be launching in the US in November in a limited roll out.
Read More: Polymarket Plans US Return Within Weeks With Sports Focus
Polymarket’s return to the US comes after the company moved offshore and paid a $1.4 million penalty in 2022 to settle allegations from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that it ran afoul of regulations.
After surging to prominence during last year’s presidential election, the company has joined the rush to capture a resurgent interest in wagering on real-world events that has upended the US gambling industry. Its closest rival, Kalshi Inc., has been open to US customers for years. And on Wednesday, FanDuel, the US online gambling division of Flutter Entertainment Plc said it would launch its own prediction market product in December.
Polymarket has been looking to raise money at a valuation between $12 billion and $15 billion since announcing an investment of as much as $2 billion from Intercontinental Exchange Inc.
After the Justice Department and the CFTC dropped investigations into the crypto-betting platform earlier this year, Polymarket acquired QCX, a firm that has CFTC approval to operate a derivatives exchange and clearinghouse.
“It’s the fastest anyone has ever gotten to market,” Coplan said. “Definitely a difficult task, but our team has been incredible and made that happen.”
The move will position Polymarket to challenge established sports gambling companies. The company has already established a partnership with the National Hockey League and announced on Thursday a multi-year partnership with TKO Group Holdings Inc. that has made it the official prediction market partner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Zuffa Boxing.
“By partnering with Shayne and his team at Polymarket, we’re unlocking a new dimension of fan engagement,” Ari Emanuel, CEO and executive chair of TKO, said in a statement. “Integrating Polymarket with the UFC and Zuffa Boxing live experience will help fans interact with these events in real time, transforming passive viewership into active participation.”
In conventional betting, users trade against the house, which sets odds, limits liquidity, and bans profitable players. Coplan argued the model is structurally flawed compared with Polymarket’s model, which allows users to set prices and back either side of an outcome – a design it says is more like an exchange than a casino.
“I don’t think anyone would argue that the sports book model is the optimal model,” Coplan said. “There’s a monopoly on pricing. You trade against the house every time and they can set whatever prices they want and to make matters worse, if you make any money, they can ban you.’
