Polymarket turned a sexual-assault investigation into a betting market, then removed it after criticism. Ben Horney reports that a contract asking whether any of seven defendants in a Cornell student’s civil lawsuit would face felony sex-crime charges attracted $451,633 in trading volume. The market appeared on Polymarket’s international platform, not its U.S. app.
The contract opened on September 30 and was due to close on January 31, 2027. Its subject was whether prosecutors would bring charges by that deadline. That makes a legal process involving an accuser and seven defendants into an outcome strangers can trade, regardless of those people’s participation or consent. Trading volume measures activity in the contract; it is not a measure of platform revenue or bettors’ losses.
Before removing the market following publication of Horney’s report, Polymarket defended it as a source of information. A spokesperson said markets brought “objective, data-driven insight into how a matter like this is moving through the legal system.” That is the company’s justification. A price on whether charges arrive before a deadline cannot settle the underlying allegations.
The criticism also reached the athletes who lend Polymarket their names. Horney reports that LeBron James is being paid $15 million a year to promote the company. Other endorsers include Derek Jeter, Eli Manning and Sue Bird. Their representatives had not responded to requests for comment. The endorsements connect a familiar sports brand to a platform whose international markets extend well beyond games.
The lawsuit alleges that the student was drugged and raped in 2024. Local prosecutors, who declined to bring charges that year, have reopened their investigation. Those allegations remain distinct from findings of guilt. The immediate cost at issue is the additional public speculation attached to an already sensitive case. Horney documents the market and the backlash, rather than measuring its effect on the people involved. Its removal also leaves the distinction between Polymarket’s international operation and its federally regulated U.S. exchange essential to understanding what happened.