Suspected Insider Trading On Ballon d’Or Bets At Polymarket Under Investigation
Bryan Berlin via Wikimedia Commons
England captain Harry Kane recently won the Ballon d’Or as the world’s best football player, and Polymarket traders scored nearly $200K by betting on the top five finishers in the voting.
French police are now investigating the possibility of insider trading at Polymarket. Law enforcement sources revealed that the suspicious bets came from 12 accounts on the prediction market platform.
Here is the correct order of finishers for men’s voting:
- Harry Kane
- Kylian Mbappe
- Lamine Yamal
- Rodri
- Lionel Messi
In addition to pegging the exact order, one source noted that the behavior of the “bettors in managing their position within the market suggested potential insider trading.”
The French news outlet Upside first reported that $264,000 was wagered across the Polymarket accounts, with profits of nearly $200,000.
Upside identified the 12 Polymarket accounts, which were created between October 1 and 20. The accounts “displayed strikingly similar patterns of activity, leading investigators to suspect they could be connected to the same individual or group.”
Six of the accounts made their trades 15 minutes after they were created. Seven of the accounts hadn’t traded on anything else.
France Football Warned Ahead Of Time
Sources also said that France Football, the Ballon d’Or organiser, was notified of betting irregularities before the award was presented.
France Football subsequently started its own investigation and contacted the SCCJ (Central Racing and Gaming Service), which oversees potential gambling improprieties.
“The integrity of the Ballon d’Or is an absolute priority for France Football,” a Ballon d’Or spokesperson said. “We would like to reiterate that the winner is selected through an independent vote. Be sure that we take these allegations of leaked results and potentially fraudulent betting very seriously. Investigations are underway to establish the facts and determine any potential responsibility.”
Kane was the first English player to win the Ballon d’Or since Michael Owen in 2001. Upside’s investigation found that one Polymarket account bet that Kane would win at $0.37 before selling at $0.67. The funds were then reinvested in trades on finishing positions.
Upside co-founder Raphaël Pautard revealed that one transaction was successfully traced back to a French platform. Upside shared the blockchain transactions and wallet addresses with that platform, which “reportedly confirmed it had identified the individual behind one of the accounts involved in funding the suspicious bets.”
That person’s identity has not been made public, but investigators are hopeful that the discovery will help reveal the connections between Polymarket accounts and the source of the money.
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