Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan has described Kalshi as a “copycat” ahead of the prediction market’s return to the US after snapping up QXC in a $112m (£82.7m) deal.
Speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box segment yesterday, 23 July, Coplan explained the rationale behind purchasing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-licensed exchange.
The move will see Polymarket return to the US, meaning customers will no longer need to use a VPN to access the site.
Polymarket agreed to depart the US in 2022 following a settlement with the CFTC. In its absence, Kalshi has risen to the fore in the prediction markets race.
Since the US presidential election last November and Kalshi’s rollout of sports event contracts in the new year, prediction markets have imposed themselves across the US.
DraftKings is reported to be in talks to snap up Railbird to enter the space, while Flutter CEO Peter Jackson has said Betfair experts are being deployed to assess the market opportunity.
During the CNBC segment, Coplan said: “It’s been this crazy journey where prediction markets and Polymarket have become this cultural phenomenon.
“We’re very lucky that people have looked at Polymarket’s success internationally and said, ‘Okay, how can we just copy and emulate this as much as possible in the US?’
“That was a very arduous journey, and now it’s been paved out. So, what it [means for us is], we can go buy this asset, and there’s precedent for how to do these things. And we’re going to be able to do it very quickly.”
Coplan proceeded to call QXC a “perfect asset”, despite the site not being live yet. Polymarket has a US waiting list live for consumers to sign up to, with plans to launch later this year.
When asked how Polymarket will deal with competition from the “sports betting universe”, Coplan attempted to lay out the differences in both product and budget.
Prediction markets have drawn criticism for their likeness to sports betting, with Kalshi facing off against state regulators in the courts on that very point.
Coplan added: “You look at sportsbooks, for example, or consumer trading apps. They’re not exchanges. They’re frontends for existing infrastructure.
“For sportsbooks, it’s basically subject to the ‘innovator’s dilemma’ where they take these huge margins, and now there’s a better way to do it with Polymarket. The way that I think about it is there’s a different type of user behaviour; the itch is scratched with Polymarket.
“That’s this idea that you have an opinion on things and you’re curious about what’s going to happen in the future – ‘I think you’re wrong and I’m right, so put up or shut up’.
“When we think about product, that’s what we want to build, as opposed to some sort of hyper-financialised app. And I do think that perhaps there will be some cannibalisation if these are powered by B2B. There’s probably going to be more competition as the revenues heat up and the market gets larger, but we’re really just focused on delivering on product.
“If you look at the numbers, Polymarket’s got pretty damn big in terms of usage, distribution and brand. You look at some of these other companies that have maybe a billion-dollar marketing budget or near it, and you look at Polymarket, which is just this scrappy team that is always trying to be guerrillas.”
When asked about the difference between Polymarket and Kalshi, Coplan retorted: “Polymarket is Polymarket and they’re a Polymarket copycat.”
Coplan’s public appearance came after the CFTC and the Department of Justice closed their investigations into Polymarket, clearing it of any wrongdoing.
Coplan had his New York home raided by the FBI following the November election, with his phone and other devices seized.
“Luckily, we were able to spell it out and it was baseless. I think we ran an excellent ship and we’ve only been maturing. When you get all the facts, it’s pretty clear,” he concluded.
EGR has contacted Kalshi for comment.
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Shayne Coplan also says that QXC is the “perfect asset” to acquire, as he argues Polymarket’s offering appeals to different consumer preferences versus sports betting operators
The post Polymarket CEO claims Kalshi is a “copycat” prediction market first appeared on EGR Intel.