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Polymarket bettors placed $1.1 billion in volume on the Super Bowl result, which saw the Philadelphia Eagles defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22.
According to Coindesk, one trader, known as "abeautifulmind," profited over $550,000 from bets on the Eagles while bettor "hubertdakid" lost $718,633 by betting against the Eagles.
The staggering betting volumes come as the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) probes the crypto betting industry. In January, Coinbase was subpoenaed by the CFTC in its investigation into Polymarket.
"When we receive requests for information from a government, each request is carefully reviewed by a team of trained experts using established procedures to determine its legal sufficiency," a Coinbase spokesperson said at the time.
Blockhead
Although based in New York, Polymarket has prohibited U.S. residents from participating since 2022 following a $1.4 million settlement with the CFTC for running an unregistered derivatives trading platform.
Additionally, the CFTC said it was looking looking into Crypto.com's sports wager offerings through contracts.
The contracts, listed on Crypto.com’s Chicago-based derivatives exchange, underwent a last-minute submission process, with the exchange notifying the CFTC of its intentions just before Christmas. This left the agency little time to evaluate the legality of the product.
Crypto.com’s contracts, tied to National Football League and college football outcomes, avoid direct references to game names on public platforms but clearly display team names and outcomes in its app.
Blockhead
Days before the Super Bowl, Robinhood removed the ability to bet on the event after receiving a formal request from the CFTC.
In a blog post, the exchange revealed that the regulator requested that Robinhood “not permit customers to access sports event contracts." As a result, Robinhood is suspending the rollout of its "Pro Football Championship" market, which was rolled out yesterday to around 1% of customers.
Robinhood is looking into providing the option to close the positions for those who already placed trades or to take them to resolution.
"We are disappointed by this outcome, especially given that we had been in regular communication with the CFTC about our intent and plans to offer this product," Robinhood stated.
Blockhead
The move came just days after the CFTC revealed it was looking into prediction market platform Kalshi's Super Bowl-related event contracts and how they align with derivatives regulations. Robinhood Derivatives had earlier announced a partnership with Kalshi to allow certain traders to bet on the Super Bowl through its platform.
Polymarket’s total lifetime sports-related contract volume has now surpassed $6 billion, exceeding the $5.2 billion volume recorded for US election markets.
