As conservative former reality television star Spencer Pratt fell to third place behind incumbent Karen Bass and City Councilor Nitya Raman, several popular right-wing creatives published posts casting doubt on the race. In one post, a MAGA influencer known as Gunther Eagleman, who has more than 1.7 million followers, suggested that Pratt’s opponent was “stealing” the election. Kalshi asked the creators to remove the posts last Friday, as Semaphore first reported.
The company does not publicly disclose its contracts with paid partners, but Kalshi’s rules specifically prohibit associates from questioning the integrity or accuracy of official election results and legal decisions made in connection with the election. “These are internal policies to guide our affiliates and partners, and they include standards for the promotion and marketing of Kalshi markets on elections,” spokesperson Dani Lever told WIRED.
Meanwhile, PolyMarket has asked two creators to remove paid-partnership tags from posts criticizing the election results, including a post by right-wing influencer Benny Johnson, which reported that Raman’s position at PolyMarket has improved because “the public has so little confidence in California’s elections that they assume Democrats are going to dramatically rig it.” Johnson’s posts were tagged as paid content from June 4 to June 8, when the partnership tag was removed.
Johnson did not respond to requests for comment. They have not posted any new Polymarket affiliate content since their removal.
“Our existing marketing guidelines clearly prohibit affiliates from providing misleading or false information, and we will continue to monitor our paid contributors and ensure compliance,” Olivia Chalos, PolyMarket’s deputy chief legal officer, told WIRED in a statement.
Polymarket declined to share the language used in contracts with affiliates, although the company confirmed that its guidelines prohibit false and misleading statements. As the newsletter Popular Information first reported today, other posts labeled as having paid partnerships with Polymarket and Kalshi that promote poll-denial stories demonstrate how enforcing their guidelines has become an easy game for prediction-market firms. (PolyMarkets is pursuing additional accounts that violated its policies, it tells WIRED.)
Last week, Politico reported that Polymarket chief marketing officer Matthew Modaber pays content creators directly using an unconventional arrangement, PayPal. It is unclear whether Modabber paid Johnson or right-wing commentator Kangmin Lee, whose post was also removed, for these specific partnerships. Polymarket declined to comment on the type of payment.
Kalshi and PolyMarkets offer a wide range of politics and election-themed markets, and prediction-market odds are increasingly included in media coverage of elections. (For example, CNN formed a formal partnership with Kalshi late last year.) But both platforms are under intense scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators. Many state officials believe these startups should be regulated like gambling platforms rather than commodity exchanges, and dozens of ongoing lawsuits are attempting to force them to comply with state gambling laws. There is also bipartisan concern over how these markets may encourage and facilitate insider trading and market manipulation.
This latest incident rings another alarm bell: These companies have entangled themselves with influencers who deny polls. The chances that this is a one-off, and that this army of firebrand commentators will make sterling decisions on what otherwise counts as reasonably paid promotional material, look bad.
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