Inside Polymarket’s Paid Quote-Retweet Esports Program

This text originally appeared 10/15/26 on ReaderGrev, a e-newsletter by Mikhail Klimentov. Mikhail labored with Aftermath cofounders Nathan and Riley at Launcher, The Washington Submit’s video games vertical, and most just lately labored with People Make Games on an investigation into Bobby Kotick’s relationship to the games press. If you wish to see extra of Mikhail’s work, take into account subscribing to ReaderGrev!

Polymarket, the prediction market platform, is paying social media customers to quote-retweet content material from its branded esports accounts. This system contains over 800 individuals, in response to posts by a Polymarket consultant in an inner Discord, and affords charges starting from $10 to a number of hundred per publish, paid in crypto.

Paying social media customers to interact with content material isn’t unlawful, and the Polymarket program has strong pointers round disclosure and the sorts of quote retweets the corporate is searching for. However the slight “Paid partnership” tag on X — a typical sight on the app, and the one public indication that there’s cash altering fingers — belies the dimensions and class of Polymarket’s esports operation, which has greater than doubled in measurement since August. And all of the whereas, within the Discord, Polymarket representatives have repeatedly reminded individuals in this system to jot down posts in a approach that ought to seem “natural,” in what one knowledgeable mentioned was an effort to ingratiate the prediction market with esports followers and informal observers.

“Actually this must look natural and in case your X profile appears to be like like Polymarket billboard that appears absoutely [sic] terrible,” wrote one Polymarket rep within the Discord.

Polymarket affords two merchandise: Polymarket International, which is inaccessible to bettors in the US, and Polymarket US, which is topic to U.S. laws. In esports — a growing market for the company — Polymarket affords traces across the outcomes of main occasions and matches, participant statistics, in addition to novelty bets, together with some regarding the groups that gamers would possibly switch to within the low season.

The prediction market firm’s esports outreach is one thing of an open secret within the esports world — with an emphasis on “open.” Some social media customers have expressed dismay over the growing prevalence of playing and betting-adjacent firms within the esports scene, having beforehand been burnt by “right here as we speak, gone tomorrow” consideration from deep-pocketed crypto firms and enterprise capital corporations. However whereas components of the paid advertising and marketing program have previously been reported, little concrete info has been revealed till now in regards to the logistical equipment behind it, the prices concerned, and the Discord server from which this system is run — even because the funds by Polymarket to creators have impressed hypothesis and debate amongst esports followers.

Emails to Polymarket’s official press line searching for remark, in addition to direct messages to quite a few Polymarket representatives from the Discord searching for interviews, went unanswered.

An inventory of individuals within the Discord contains outstanding esports commentators, present and former skilled gamers, crew coaches and managers, media entrepreneurs and content material creators, PR professionals, novice roster reporters, staff of esports match organizers, and numerous social media gadflies.

When figures like that quote-retweet posts like the one embedded below with a sentence or two of commentary, they could be receiving tens and even a whole lot of {dollars} in compensation.

NEW 🚨: Polymarket merchants predict Lukxo 🇧🇷 can have the MOST FIRST BLOODS at Champions 🏆

The LOUD 🇧🇷 participant is the heavy favorite with a 37% probability…

Present standings of gamers left:

1. Lukxo 🇧🇷 – 47
2. Jawgemo 🇰🇭 – 44
3. Timotino 🇨🇦 – 39

Who wins it? 🤔

Commerce right here: https://t.co/CaXzAzhMlw

— Polymarket VALORANT (@PolymarketVAL) October 13, 2026

Nonetheless, lots of the posters paid to quote-retweet Polymarket’s content material are digital unknowns, with low four-figure follower counts on X.

Potential individuals within the advertising and marketing program are sometimes contacted through social media or e mail. In the event that they present curiosity in persevering with the dialog, they’re introduced right into a Polymarket Discord server. In that server, devoted channels for particular person esport titles ping customers in regards to the tweets they need to quote-retweet — which usually deal with some ongoing event or storyline, and the corresponding market on which customers can wager, which is linked to within the publish.

“New tweet is up: Like + QRT. Replies appreciated,” reads a typical message, which features a hyperlink to the tweet. “Textual content-only quote from your individual account. Counts for the subsequent 24 hours solely.” These messages used to additionally embody the phrase “+ Paid Partnership tag,” urging customers to reveal their participation in this system. That textual content has not appeared on the Discord prompts since late August, for causes that weren’t instantly clear.

Customers are concurrently onboarded to a proprietary device referred to as PolyTrack, a dashboard into which they will enter their tax info, crypto pockets tackle, and finally, the quote-retweets for which they are going to be paid. The platform tracks month-to-month and lifelong earnings, and affords steerage in regards to the sorts of posts that meet this system’s standards. 

Whereas this report is solely targeted on Polymarket’s promotional efforts on X, PolyTrack additionally contains the choice to enter video and streaming platforms.

The quantity customers are paid is negotiated upon entry into this system, and is predicated on what number of views their tweets usually acquired earlier than entry. The payout isn’t decided by engagement metrics on the paid quote-retweets. 

“Somebody averaging 2,000 views cannot ask for $50 per publish, and the identical logic works the opposite approach,” wrote a Polymarket rep within the Discord final week, when discussing the method of onboarding new posters. “That holds irrespective of who you might be within the scene. The one exception is Tier 1 casters, expertise, creators and gamers, who can get increased charges due to how well-known they’re.”

Two customers who spoke with ReaderGrev confirmed charges of $45 and $75 per publish. One other participant described negotiating a price within the $200-300 vary. One person shared with ReaderGrev a PolyTrack screenshot exhibiting that they made practically $900 in only one month from roughly a dozen posts.

Two different individuals in this system mentioned payouts bottomed out at $10; one in every of them added that they’d heard that $400 was the higher finish of the vary. Program members are paid in crypto; in a July publish within the Discord, a Polymarket rep mentioned the crew had phased out an earlier fee technique, PayPal, as a result of its accounts stored “getting blocked” because of the excessive quantity of funds.

This system affords customers different alternatives to make cash. “Once you carry somebody into this system, you earn 3% of what they make, each month, for so long as they keep in this system,” wrote one Polymarket consultant within the Discord.

This system seems to be rising — and quick. At the beginning of August, one Polymarket consultant mentioned on Discord that “300+ creators” have been collaborating in this system. Two months later, a distinct consultant put the tally at “800+.”

Nonetheless, the corporate’s scattershot method to outreach has on a number of events drawn the ire of creators who oppose playing or betting.

“I do not ever reply to playing sponsor outreach so I simply delete and transfer on,” mentioned Cloud Sidky, a League of Legends content material creator who was approached by Polymarket in September. “I am personally in opposition to sports activities betting, and much more in opposition to prediction markets.”

The precise price of this system to Polymarket is tough to estimate. The platform’s 4 esports accounts on X differ in measurement, and there are various numbers of creators in every recreation’s program. The DotA 2 program has provided only one publish for paid promotion in October, one in September, and two in August. The League of Legends, Valorant, and Counter-Strike packages, against this, have shared practically one publish per day up to now few weeks, with Valorant exercise ramping up across the Champions occasion that marks the top of the sport’s annual aggressive circuit. On Wednesday, a Polymarket rep within the Discord server sought to hype up individuals within the lead as much as Worlds, the 12 months’s capstone League of Legends occasion, saying they might count on extra posts to return up for promotion every day. (He appended a 🤑 emoji to his message, and advised customers to publish “a lot in between so it appears to be like natural in case your gonna QRT day by day.”)

Polymarket’s whole payout to creators per publish for the extra in style packages possible numbers within the 4 digits. A conservative estimate — assuming that the majority of posters are being paid on the decrease finish of the spectrum — locations the payout between $2,000 and $4,000 per publish. These estimates are virtually actually an undercount; the determine can swing dramatically based mostly on the variety of highly-paid customers partaking with any particular person publish. Just some creators with 100 or several-hundred greenback price can dramatically enhance the fee to Polymarket.

Posts linked to the paid quote-retweet program see considerably extra engagement — significantly quote retweets — than different posts from the Polymarket branded accounts.

Polymarket’s method to social media — paying influencers within the area to interact with its content material — is a shortcut to reaching an endemic viewers with out having to construct that viewers from scratch, mentioned Jake Steinberg, a author and adjunct professor of social media technique at Villanova College.

“If I comply with 10 esports accounts and all 10 independently look like speaking about one thing like Polymarket over the course of some days or per week, then Polymarket has perhaps efficiently purchased this sort of repeated publicity to me,” Steinberg mentioned. “Even when I do not click on something, that truly does grow to be helpful [to Polymarket], as a result of I’m changing into aware of the identify and what the product does, and the concept that Polymarket is related on this world that I’m all in favour of.”

“That is a really totally different impact on me because the viewer” in comparison with a standard commercial, Steinberg added.

In a doc shared with customers throughout onboarding, Polymarket instructs creators to obviously disclose their relationship with the platform.

“The disclosure have to be clear, conspicuous, in plain language, and never hidden,” in response to a doc titled Exterior Advertising Pointers. At a look, lots of the quote-retweets of Polymarket-branded esports posts embody the default X “paid partnership” disclosure tag.

The doc additionally prohibits customers from recommending trades.

“Polymarket’s Consultants usually are not funding advisors and proposals from Consultants as to particular trades or buying and selling methods exposes each Polymarket and the Guide to authorized danger,” the doc reads. “A verbal disclaimer that ‘this isn’t monetary recommendation’ doesn’t resolve this drawback and such a disclaimer is inadequate to get rid of the chance of authorized motion.”

The doc continues: “A Guide might focus on his or her personal trades (assuming he/she has truly made such trades) and the rationale for making these trades however might by no means counsel or advocate that others make the identical commerce.” The bolding and underlining on “by no means” are current within the doc.

PolyTrack, in the meantime, affords steerage round what makes publish — and what doesn’t.

Submit “your individual take, response, or evaluation. One sharp sentence beats a generic line each time,” reads one of many “Do This” bullet factors.

“Submit in your regular voice and provides folks a motive to answer,” reads one other. “Questions and sizzling takes begin conversations.”

In contrast, customers are advised to keep away from low-effort and off-topic captions: “‘wow’, ‘loopy’, or a row of emojis … underperform and stand out in evaluate for the flawed motive.”

“Employees evaluate each caption,” the rules word. “Sturdy, on-topic captions assist submissions get verified sooner and preserve a excessive customary throughout this system.”

Although prediction markets have drawn scrutiny from some corners, some individuals in this system have defended Polymarket’s mannequin.

“I really feel fantastic collaborating as a result of Polymarket has no home edge or VIG,” wrote Justin “Trick” Sears, a former skilled Valorant participant, in a direct message, referring to charges charged by bookmakers.

Sears added that he had turned down a $50,000 six-month deal provided to him by one other “energetic firm within the area” as a result of the corporate provided slots on their web site. “Prediction markets are PVP thats the way in which i take a look at it,” he wrote.

“I’m actually unsure why folks deal with this as some form of scandal. It’s all very above-board,” mentioned one other person who has posted content material sponsored by Polymarket, and who requested anonymity as a result of they aren’t a consultant for the corporate. “The quote RTs are all flagged as promotion as is the unique tweet. I don’t know the way it could possibly be extra clear. If there’s a criticism it must be on Twitter’s aspect relating to how paid promoting is dealt with on the platform.”

Prediction market exercise in esports has surged over the previous two years, partially as a result of the larger sportsbooks see esports as a distinct segment and generally even unappealing providing relative to conventional sports activities.

“The urge for food was at all times there for folks to wager” in esports, mentioned Ollie Ring, who writes the Lootboxes & Leftovers e-newsletter, which has coated the intersection of gaming and playing. “What then got here is an inflow of people that noticed cash and went: ‘I would like a chunk of that.’” 

However when that first wave of curiosity occurred, the product wasn’t prepared, Ring mentioned. “The event wasn’t there. The information offers, the integrity construction, all of it round it wasn’t prepared for the quantity of those that got here in wanting a slice of this proverbial pie. … [Now,] operators are like: ‘I do not wish to contact esports as a result of we tried it in 2018, 9, eight years in the past and it misplaced us a load of cash.’ … And sportsbooks do not like dropping cash. They like your typical fluffy NFL parlays the place folks put 12 groups in an accumulator after which lose their cash.”

Prediction markets, against this, “provide the primary actual alternative to handle the market at a nationwide degree, and I feel there may be quite a lot of overlap, or at the least extra overlap, [between] prediction markets and esports than conventional betting and esports,” wrote Cody Luongo, a media guide who authors the Sharpr e-newsletter, in a direct message. Luongo mentioned the previous class leaned “youthful, hipper, crypto-native.”

Riot Video games, which publishes League of Legends and Valorant and runs the 2 video games’ esports circuits, has reportedly held discussions with Polymarket and Kalshi, a competing prediction market firm, about esports sponsorship offers.