Polymarket Dismisses Chief Marketing Officer Matthew Modabber After Probe Into Misleading Promotions

Polymarket has dismissed Matthew Modabber, its chief marketing officer since January 2024. The prediction market platform ended his employment after an internal probe into several embarrassing episodes that alarmed investors, according to reporting by The New York Post.

The review centered on a June Wall Street Journal exposé. That report detailed how Modabber’s team built a fake webpage to promote videos of users making money on phony trades, with some clips falsely showing customers winning about $1.9 million. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission opened an investigation into the matter. That inquiry continues and no wrongdoing has been established.

Additional scrutiny examined money flowing through Modabber’s personal PayPal account. The account was registered to an email for Salad House, an Italy-based salad chain Modabber co-founded. A Politico investigation found more than $2.5 million in payments sent to over 800 recipients, with at least $350,000 of that going to identified influencers. Modabber often paid influencers to promote Polymarket without disclosing the paid partnership.

Leadership Ties and Internal Conflict

Modabber has been a close ally of Shayne Coplan, the 28-year-old CEO. The two attended the Beacon School in Manhattan together and were described as “thick as thieves.” This friendship complicated the decision. One source said Coplan was “irate” and threatened to fire members of the legal team that pushed for the dismissal, though Coplan later accepted that a split served the company. Neal Kumar leads that legal team.

Insiders told the Post that Modabber made impulsive decisions that became public relations problems. A rift grew between loyalists to Coplan and Modabber on one side and employees and investors on the other. The latter group saw Modabber as a “huge liability” who was “wreaking havoc” on the company’s attempts to “grow up.” Some employees also grew wary of Modabber’s ties to internet influencers such as Clavicular.

Board Oversight and Corporate Direction

Polymarket’s board has four members: Coplan, crypto investor Nick Tomaino, corporate lawyer Alex Spiro and an unidentified partner at Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. Sources said the board concluded in recent weeks that Modabber was obstructing the company’s effort to shed its scrappy startup image as it eyes a possible IPO.

A Bloomberg report this week said Founders Fund insisted last year that Polymarket strengthen its financial controls before it committed money. In August, Polymarket restructured its marketing team and brought in the founder of e-scooter startup Bird to lead it. Modabber’s LinkedIn page calls him “employee #11” and credits him with lifting daily volume to “mid 9-figure daily volume via digital growth hacks.” He also built and led a team across marketing, partnerships, and growth.

Polymarket was prohibited from serving U.S. customers in January 2022 after settling allegations that it operated an unregistered derivatives trading platform. The company later regained access to the U.S. market by acquiring CFTC-regulated derivatives exchange and clearinghouse QCX.

Reporting: World Casino News

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