Sports fans have long loved to bet on their favorite teams, but online sports betting has turned the casual wager into a click. Legal sports betting generated $10 billion during the first three quarters of 2025, but increasingly, prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi, more so than sports betting platforms themselves, have become the platform of choice for people looking to win big.
But now, sports betting platforms are under increasingly intense scrutiny after more than 30 people, including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, were arrested on charges of illegal sports betting and insider trading in October.
Prediction markets have seen what’s happening to sports betting—in-person and online—and are taking matters into their own hands before sports betting can get out of hand on their own platforms.
Now, Polymarket will use a software developed by Palantir and investment holding company TWG Global to monitor sports betting on its platform in the U.S., Bloomberg reported. Last year, Palantir and TWG Global started a joint venture to expand AI in financial institutions—this new platform will screen for participants already banned from sports betting.
“Our partnership with Palantir and TWG AI allows us to apply world-class analytics and monitoring to sports markets,” CEO Shayne Coplan said in a statement to Bloomberg.
The move is a reversal for Polymarket. In December, Coplan said that his platform can self-police insider trading by relying on users to flag suspicious activity, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“The moment there is a suspected insider, it’s pointed out on X, and it’s visible on Polymarket immediately. So it’s not like it’s done in darkness,” Coplan told WSJ.
Preempting any scrutiny
Polymarket has been marred with criticism recently as users have won big by betting on huge geopolitical events right before they happen. In January, one Polymarket user, who had only created their account a week before, placed a bet that Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro would be out of office by the end of January. Accusations of insider trading came flooding in after the trader made more than $400,000 off the bet.
In February, one Polymarket user made $553,000 on betting on the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei hours before an Israeli strike killed him on Feb. 28.
In recent months, several major sports leagues, including the National Hockey League and Major League Soccer, have announced partnerships with Polymarket.
The Palantir system will only be deployed for U.S. users, according to Bloomberg. Most U.S. traders access Polymarket using a virtual private network (VPN) as a U.S.-based platform has not fully launched, just months after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approved the platform to reenter the U.S. Several states, including Nevada, Massachusetts, and Michigan, have recently sued Polymarket and Kalshi for violating state gambling laws.
