Jack Paul 
Polymarket is said to be paying professional Brazilian Counter-Strike players to promote its prediction market on X. The payments reportedly run from $20 to $500 per post. The story first appeared on Dust2, a Counter-Strike news outlet.
According to Dust2, players are being asked to comment on news events while mentioning Polymarket and sharing bets. Polymarket currently lists 509 different Counter-Strike bets. Some of those bets attract between $1 million and $2 million in trading volume, so the sponsorship makes sense from a marketing view.
Pushback from players
Not everyone is happy. Professional Counter-Strike player Robin Kool recently threatened to block Polymarket promoters. The issue started when an official Polymarket Counter-Strike account falsely claimed he was in Paris with a Porsche. Kool called that post digital cancer. He also criticised people who create sponsored Polymarket posts using AI, calling the whole thing a joke in a message that was widely shared.
Other users were just as harsh. One described the $20 per post rate as a way for professional players to completely debase themselves for a morally bankrupt gambling company. That may sound strong, but the reaction shows how some fans view the sponsored content.
Fake bets and restrictions
This is not the first time Polymarket’s promotional material has caused problems. Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reported that many sponsored posts were based on fake bets. Influencers apparently used a fake Polymarket website to create fake bets and show winnings of $900,000. If those bets had been real, the WSJ calculated they would have lost about $160,000.
The WSJ also found that some clippers, people who edit and share footage of influencers, were only paid if at least 60 percent of their audience was based in the US. That matters because Polymarket is not allowed to operate in the US. In total, Polymarket now lists 39 countries where it is restricted.
Protos has reached out to Polymarket for comment. We will update this piece if we hear back.