Atlanta-based parent of NYSE investing up to $2B in prediction market
Intercontinental Exchange, the Atlanta-based parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, is investing up to $2 billion in Polymarket, a prediction platform where users can bet and sell shares on potential outcomes to global events, the companies announced Tuesday.
It’s a match between two companies that on the surface seem wildly different, but are essentially market makers. Polymarket is a disruptive 5-year-old startup where people around the world bet billions of dollars on questions such as when the U.S. government shutdown will end or who will win the Super Bowl. Users can also sell their “yes” or “no” bet, a bit like trading a share in a company.
Polymarket is now considered in some ways a modern-day Nostradamus. The company, along with its rival prediction markets, skyrocketed to prominence after last year’s U.S. presidential election when millions of people bet that Donald Trump would win, resulting in a forecast that was more accurate than some polls. The company is valued at approximately $8 billion.
ICE was launched by Jeffrey Sprecher in 2000 and owns a slew of commodity and stock exchanges around the world, including the 233-year-old NYSE.
But despite these differences, Shayne Coplan, founder and CEO of Polymarket, and Sprecher did have one thing in common: Being “falsely accused of something” and raided by the FBI, Sprecher told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday.
It was that similarity that led him to reach out once Coplan’s legal issues resolved.
“We started to talk about the white space of opportunity that existed between our firms and this common experience that we both had,” Sprecher said.
As part of the deal, ICE will become a global distributor of Polymarket’s data to provide customers with “sentiment indicators on topics of market relevance,” the companies said in their statement.
“Our partnership with ICE marks a major step in bringing prediction markets into the financial mainstream,” Coplan said in the statement. “Together, we’re expanding how individuals and institutions use probabilities to understand and price the future.”
This deal is Polymarket’s second big investment in the past few months. In August, Polymarket announced it had received an investment from 1789 Capital and that Donald Trump Jr., a partner at the investment firm, was joining its advisory board.
The ICE deal also ties Polymarket even closer to allies of the Trump administration. Sprecher is married to Kelly Loeffler, the former Republican Georgia senator who now leads the Small Business Administration.
Polymarket was banned in the U.S. by regulators in 2022, but Coplan said on CNBC the company will be reentering the U.S. market “very soon.”
About the Author
Mirtha Donastorg is a reporter on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s business team focusing on Black wealth, entrepreneurship, and minority-owned businesses as well as innovation at Atlanta’s HBCUs.
