Polymarket partnered with the Golden Globes, allowing viewers to bet on who they thought would win awards

Polymarket crossed over from niche markets to Hollywood’s biggest night at the 83rd Golden Globes. As the show aired, hosts and viewers regularly checked Polymarket to see how traders were betting, and the collective judgment proved surprisingly accurate.

The platform’s CEO, Shayne Coplan, took to X to highlight Polymarket’s near-perfect predictions at the awards. He said, “The single most mainstream prediction market integration to date. Polymarket called 26/28 winners right.” 

The milestone comes as Polymarket expands beyond entertainment into real-world economic forecasting. The platform has partnered with Parcl, a data firm that tracks daily home values, to allow users to wager on whether housing prices in major U.S. cities will rise or fall.

The two firms recently announced that they will collaborate to enable users to bet on their predictions for median prices in cities such as Miami and Los Angeles.

These markets will close on February 1, with winners determined using Parcl’s daily price index. However, according to Polymarket, new housing prediction markets will be introduced every month, allowing people to continue trading based on fresh data.

Some X users bashed the Golden Globes collaboration with Polymarket

In his post, Coplan noted that there’s still plenty of work to do in helping people understand why market-based forecasts matter, even if their accuracy is hard to dispute. Nonetheless, he described the Golden Globes’ partnership as “a surreal moment and a highlight for all our team members’ moms.”

Some X users were genuinely surprised at how accurate the prediction platform was, with others encouraging more mainstream adoption. However, the integration also drew in a flurry of critical posts.

One user, Josh Billinson, remarked, “The Golden Globes Best Podcast odds presented by Polymarket are a new low for this humiliating awards show.” Another commenter urged the public to resist the prediction platforms, referring to them as “pocket casinos,” while others even questioned the legitimacy of the award show.

The criticism builds on recent concerns surrounding Polymarket and other prediction markets, after the controversial Venezuela-related bet. An anonymous bettor correctly called the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s downfall just hours ahead of his capture and pocketed more than $400,000.

His earnings triggered concerns about insider trading. New York Democrat Ritchie Torres even proposed a 2026 bill that would ban government officials and staff from trading on prediction markets using insider information. The bill, the Public Integrity in Financial Prediction Markets Act of 2026, would prevent officials from using nonpublic government information to place bets on prediction markets.

Several U.S. states are opposed to prediction markets

Currently, Polymarket is valued at approximately $9 billion, placing it just behind market leader Kalshi. Most top prediction markets experienced significant growth leading up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election and continued to perform strongly afterward. For instance, in December, Kalshi and Polymarket collectively accrued nearly $9 billion in trading volume. 

Over the past few months, Polymarket and Kalshi have also partnered with several media organizations. Yahoo Finance has teamed up exclusively with Polymarket, whereas Google Finance will display information from both platforms. Moreover, CNN has partnered officially with Kalshi to integrate its data, and last week, Polymarket agreed to provide exclusive market insights to The Wall Street Journal and other Dow Jones publications.

However, the platforms have also faced resistance from U.S. states. For starters, Tennessee regulators issued cease-and-desist letters last week to Kalshi, Polymarket, and Crypto.com, targeting their allegedly unlicensed sports betting operations. The mandates require the firms to discontinue sports contract offerings, cancel pending contracts, and return all funds to customers by January 31.

Although registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the state’s Sports Gaming Act requires any platform taking sports bets to have a Tennessee license, which none of the three hold.

At least 10 states have taken action against prediction markets over the past year, with Tennessee being the latest addition. Kalshi has previously received cease-and-desist orders from Nevada,  Connecticut, Wisconsin, Arizona, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Montana, and Ohio.

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