A trader made a nearly 100x return on decentralized betting platform Polymarket in less than a minute, thanks to a blunder by a UFC announcer.
In Sunday’s UFC heavyweight bout, Tyrell Fortune beat Marcin Tybura to secure his first UFC win. But the event was not without drama. Cage announcer Bruce Buffer initially read the score in Tybura’s favor, a score that stood for less than a minute before Buffer corrected the error.
LlamaEnjoyer, a Polymarket trader aka Verrissimus on X, took advantage of the bug and turned about $676 into $67,000.
When Tybura was named the victor, his shares soared toward 99 cents and Fortune’s collapsed to about 1 cent. LlamaEnjoyer said they almost placed a $100,000 bet on Tybura at 99 cents, but stopped when they realized something was wrong. Instead, the trader bought $676 worth of Fortune shares for 1 cent. Seconds later, when the UFC corrected the announcement, the stock immediately jumped to $1.
“Almost bought Tybura at 99¢ with $100k. Stopped, realized something was wrong. Canceled my order, picked up 1¢ shares instead. UFC corrected the winner seconds later. Easiest 100x ever,” said Verrissimus on X.
LlamaEnjoyer’s quick thinking illustrates how quickly predictable market prices can swing during live events, especially when big announcements are misread or misreported.
The incident also raises questions about how payouts are handled when there is an error at the “source of truth” – the reference that contracts rely on to determine outcomes. Since the error originates with the UFC announcer, there may be a dispute over payouts or contract resolution, although the trader’s actions remain fully legitimate.
