FIFA’s Official Prediction Market Partner ADI PredictStreet Faces Questions After Probe Reveals Concentrated Wallet Activity
ADI PredictStreet secured a $150M FIFA deal in April for the 2026 World Cup. A WSJ investigation found $108M of $167M in trades through September came from one network of 795 crypto wallets, accounting for 99% of volume since late August. Harvard researchers flagged the patterns; Gibraltar saw no self-trading breach.
SCCG Take — Prediction market operators must ensure verifiable liquidity in sports partnerships or risk eroding regulatory and public confidence in reported volumes.
A prediction-market platform with alleged links to the Abu Dhabi royal family is facing questions over whether much of its trading volume was artificially inflated. ADI PredictStreet became FIFA’s official prediction-market partner in April, reportedly paying more than $150 million for the privilege despite not yet being operational. Gibraltar had granted the company a gambling license just days earlier in what officials described as record time.
An investigation by The Wall Street Journal, as reported by Casino.org News, found that around $108 million of the $167 million traded on ADI PredictStreet through late September came from a network of cryptocurrency wallets funded by a single crypto wallet that also collected the platform’s trading fees. The network accounted for 99% of all trading on the platform since late August.
Researcher Findings on Wallet Network
Three Harvard University researchers identified the network of 795 wallets through an analysis of publicly available blockchain transactions. The accounts traded almost exclusively with one another. During the World Cup itself, just two wallets reportedly generated more than $81 million in transactions.
The pattern raises questions about possible wash trading, where coordinated accounts repeatedly buy and sell assets to create the impression of genuine market activity. Such transactions can inflate reported trading volumes. The findings are not conclusive proof of wrongdoing and do not establish who controlled the wallets or whether the transactions were deliberately manipulated. Gibraltar’s gambling commissioner told the Journal that a preliminary review found the company was complying with local rules prohibiting self-trading.
Partnership Context and Unresolved Questions
ADI PredictStreet has been linked to International Holding Company, a conglomerate chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, although the company has disputed claims of royal involvement. When announcing their partnership, FIFA promised safeguards including real-time monitoring of suspicious trading activity and systems for sharing information about potential integrity threats. It is unclear whether those safeguards detected the trading patterns uncovered by the Harvard researchers. ADI PredictStreet did not respond to the Journal’s request for comment.
Reporting: Casino.org News
Generated by SCCG’s automated editorial system from published source reporting. SCCG Management holds editorial responsibility.
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