As the game ended 0-0, both were paid. The wallet cashed in about $4.7 million on the Spanish market and $8.5 million on the spread, according to its public trading record, for a one-day profit of about $9 million.
On the other hand, a trader using the name ‘betoor619’ lost nearly $1 million, Polymarket trade records reviewed by CoinDesk show. The punter had staked nearly $1.1 million on a Spanish win as the market priced the favorite at around 92%. Had Spain won, the payout would have been only about $85,000, the thin reward typical of betting on near-certain outcomes.
The account had never won or lost more than $9,000 in a single event before, the history attached to the account shows.
Polymarket is a prediction market where people trade stocks tied to real-world outcomes, with prices acting as implied odds and settled in USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin, on a public blockchain.
Traders use crypto wallets and operate under pseudonyms rather than real names, a feature lawmakers have criticized because the platform does not collect the background information that regulated sportsbooks do.
About $64 million traded on the Spain game alone. Polymarket’s market for the overall tournament winner has drawn about $2.4 billion, making the World Cup its biggest event since last year’s US election and pushing it past the roughly $1.4 billion wagered on this year’s Super Bowl.
