Polymarket cut contractors and some staff last week, Front Office Sports reports

Polymarket made layoffs last week, significantly reducing the number of contractors it works with and letting some full-time employees go, Front Office Sports reported on November 11, 2026. The cuts came amid a broader reorganization meant to “professionalize” the company ahead of a potential go-public deal, one that two sources told FOS could come as soon as 2027.

The full scope of the full-time cuts was not clear. FOS spoke to four people for the story, none of whom were among those laid off. Polymarket declined to disclose how many employees it has or how many contractors it works with.

What was cut

Polymarket significantly reduced the number of contractors it will work with going forward, especially in marketing, an area one source familiar with the company described to FOS as recently “heavily reorganized.” A handful of people have posted on social media about losing their jobs, including workers in creative and growth, video and marketing.

Marketing leadership had already changed. FOS reported that former chief marketing officer Matthew Modabber was fired in October and replaced by former Uber executive Travis VanderZanden, whose title at Polymarket is chief growth officer.

FOS also addressed viral posts claiming the company had cut 30% of its workforce after the midterm elections. A source familiar with the matter told FOS that figure was inaccurate. One of the posts carried a screenshot of an email that cited “a company-wide reduction in force” and ended a contractor agreement effective November 4. A source told FOS the screenshot was “not fake,” but that the email went only to contractors, not to full-time employees.

“As we’ve grown and brought on new leadership, we’ve reorganized to set the company up for its next phase of growth, which has meant a lot of new hires, changes in personnel and letting some people go,” a Polymarket spokesperson said in an emailed statement to FOS. “We’re grateful to the team that got us here, and we’ll keep growing as we build what’s next.”

Another source described turnover rather than retrenchment. “They’ve cleaned house in a lot of spots, and there are full-time employees that have been moved out as the company has been hiring other people,” that person told FOS. “It’s not like a struggle for cash or something.”

Hiring for the next phase

The reorganization has come with a run of senior hires. Malea Otranto joined as global head of trust and safety in August after almost seven years at Meta. Lisa Mantil started as head of institutional growth in September after nearly three decades at Goldman Sachs. Warren Jenson became chief financial officer in September, a role he previously held at Amazon, Electronic Arts and Delta Air Lines.

The listing timeline rests on the two unnamed sources. Polymarket’s statement to FOS does not mention a listing.

The cuts also land while the company is raising money and reporting growth. A source recently told FOS that Polymarket is putting the finishing touches on a $1 billion funding round led by Donald Trump Jr.’s 1789 Capital, which would reportedly value the company at about $21 billion. On November 10, Polymarket told CNBC that its annualized revenue had passed $1.8 billion, up from more than $1 billion in June, and credited the growth of its U.S. exchange.

Rivals, regulators and controversies

Polymarket trailed Kalshi on volume in the third quarter. A report from Predicted, cited by FOS, put Kalshi at 73% of total prediction-market volume in the third quarter and Polymarket second at about 18%.

Its U.S. platform faces lawsuits and attempted enforcement from state regulators who treat sports-event contracts as sports betting. Its affiliate PM Derivatives registered as a futures commission merchant on October 30, days after Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter, that the CFTC is investigating whether Polymarket broke a 2022 settlement in which it promised to keep U.S. users off its overseas platform.

Much of the controversy has centered on that international platform. In October, Polymarket removed a market on whether any of seven male defendants accused of raping a Cornell student would be charged with a felony sex crime, the same day FOS reported on it. Federal prosecutors have also indicted a U.S. soldier and a Google software engineer, accusing them of using inside information to trade on the platform.

The cuts come in a year of layoffs across the betting industry, including at least three rounds at DraftKings and reductions at FanDuel, Underdog, PrizePicks and Penn Entertainment.

As of November 11, the number of people affected is unknown, the 30% figure is disputed by FOS’s source, and the listing timeline comes from two unnamed sources. What is on the record is Polymarket’s own explanation: a reorganization for its “next phase of growth,” with new leadership already in place.

Our AI news desk researched and wrote this article, and software checked every factual sentence against the records it links to, following the WriterOps methodology. Report an error.