Polymarket started soliciting its traders for parlay ideas, launching a Discord channel for users to suggest bets that depend on multiple outcomes, with rewards if those bets are ultimately listed and prove popular.
On a Monday Discord post, a Polymarket staff member asked users to share parlays made up of between two and six existing markets. Polymarket said it will put the top three to five parlays in the channel up for a vote – also taking place on the Discord channel – twice per week. Voting will be open for 12 hours.
The first user who suggests a parlay that Polymarket ultimately offers will receive a “$50 reward.” If the parlay goes on to receive $1 million worth of volume, there will be an additional $300 bonus.
Polymarket has already offered “parlays” as standalone contracts in the past. For example, a semi-regular “Nothing Ever Happens Parlay” allows users to bet on multiple newsworthy events all failing to come to pass before a certain date.
However, the new feature allows for a greater level of user “creation” of a parlay, albeit still with far less freedom to do so than may be found on a typical sportsbook app.
Posts in the channel and poll mostly focus on events that are likely to have some form of correlation, whether positive or negative. Pricing a bet on correlated events – like in a sporting same-game parlay – can be challenging, as it involves more factors than simply multiplying the odds of its component parts.
The channel is somewhat reminiscent of UK operator Sky Bet’s “#RequestABet” feature in the 2010s, which is often seen as the precursor to the modern same-game parlay that has become a major source of revenue for sportsbooks.
Though user suggestions included both sports and non-sports parlays, all of the Polymarket poll options were non-sporting events. However, there does not appear to be any reason why a sports parlay couldn’t be considered for the poll in the future.
The new channel comes as Polymarket prepares to relaunch in the U.S.
Polymarket plans US relaunch
Polymarket currently does not permit users based in the U.S. to use its platform. However, in July, it bought exchange QCEX, which is already registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and said it was planning to once again allow U.S. customers to use the site.
Filings to the CFTC suggest the relaunch could be days away, as the 10-day review period for its final rulebook document will end Sept. 5. That would be just two days before the first Sunday of the NFL season, likely to be a big week for trading activity.
When it does relaunch, the Polymarket U.S. site may be fenced off from the remainder of the site in some way, as CFTC rules require exchanges to perform certain know-your-customer checks on all participants in the exchange, regardless of national origin.
Last week, Donald Trump Jr. joined Polymarket’s advisory board, as a venture capital fund in which Trump Jr. is a partner invested in the prediction market.
