CEO Kalshi admits to enlisting influencers to take down Polymarket in now-deleted podcast clip
everything CEO Tariq Mansour confirmed in a podcast interview that his employees asked social media influencers to promote memes about an FBI raid on the home of his archrival, the CEO of Polymarket.
Both companies offer competing markets for event betting, a new type of betting industry where people bet on the outcomes of events ranging from elections to popular culture.
the The FBI raided the home of Polymarket’s CEO Mansour said that Shane Coplan last month, and it emerged that Kalci tried to take advantage of his rival’s misfortunes by asking influential people to post satirical photos about the topic.
“Some of our team got really nervous. They didn’t pay anyone. They just asked some of our long-time affiliates to post some memes.” Nicole Wichoff said On this week’s episode of her show FirstMoney In.
Pirates Wires, a media outlet founded by Mike Solana, I mentioned That Calci employees were paying influencers to post content suggesting that Polymarket and its CEO Shane Coplan were engaging in illegal activities. However, the Pirates Wires article also acknowledged an apparent conflict of interest with this report. Solana is the CMO of Founders Fund, a lead investor in Polymarket, while Polymarket is an advertiser for Pirates Wires.
The podcast segment discussing Calci’s response to the raid and rivalry with Polymarket was deleted shortly after it initially aired. However, TechCrunch got the deleted part and listened to it.
In the podcast, Mansour accused Polymarket of engaging in similar tactics on social media against Kalci as well. “Both companies were doing this,” he said, adding that his team believed Polymarket was behind some social media posts suggesting “that the FBI had raided us as well.” That did not happen, he said. “We were not raided by the FBI.” Federal investigations.”
TechCrunch was unable to confirm these claims. Neither Polymarket nor Kalshi responded to our requests for comment.
But the CEO said on the podcast that he had allowed social media wars “to go too far” by members of his company, adding: “I don’t think there’s any benefit to an eye for an eye.”
Although Kalshi did not fire the employees involved, Mansour said the individuals “understand it was a mistake, and they should not do it again.”
Polymarket claimed that the reasons for the raid were related to political motives surrounding bets on the US presidential election, even though both markets were betting on its outcome. According to Bloomberg, The Department of Justice is investigating Polymarket Allegedly allowing US users to participate in restricted trades. After the 2022 settlement with the Commodity and Exchange Commission, Polymarket is banned from allowing US traders to bet on its platform, Bloomberg also reported.
Kalshi, unlike Polymarket, has been legally allowed to accept trades from US residents since 2021. In September, the company also… He won a lawsuit This allowed it to accept bets on the election results.
Calci, whose backers include Sequoia and Y Combinator, is as well Currently raising a funding round As much as $50 million or more, TechCrunch reported last month.
