Polymarket Cuts Staff and Contractors in Company-Wide Reorganization

Polymarket has laid off employees and ended contractor relationships in a company-wide reduction in force, Bloomberg reported on Nov. 11, with the cuts concentrated in marketing according to Front Office Sports.

A contractor termination notice obtained by Front Office Sports set Nov. 4 as the effective date and described a "company-wide reduction in force." Bloomberg reported that Polymarket confirmed the email was legitimate. The company declined to disclose how many employees and contractors were affected, and its total headcount remains unknown.

The cuts fell hardest on marketing. Front Office Sports reported that the layoffs occurred last week and that Polymarket significantly reduced its contractor roster, particularly in marketing roles. The reorganization also replaced chief marketing officer Matthew Modabber with chief growth officer Travis VanderZanden, a former Uber executive.

"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 told Front Office Sports.

What do the cuts mean for the business?

The personnel changes arrive alongside a sharp rise in revenue. Polymarket told CNBC on Nov. 10 that its annualized revenue had surpassed $1.8 billion, up from a pace above $1 billion disclosed in June. The figure represents an annualized run rate, not revenue earned over a completed year.

Trading volume tells a more competitive story. Third-quarter data from Predicted puts Kalshi far ahead of both Polymarket venues in notional trading volume:

• Kalshi: $141.9 billion
• Polymarket US: $17.3 billion
• Polymarket International: $17.1 billion

Predicted, which covers July through September, attributed Kalshi's more-than-doubling of quarterly volume to parlays — multi-leg bets. Polymarket's U.S. volume rose to 2.4 times its second-quarter level, while its international volume fell 36%. Notional turnover is not company revenue, so the volume gap does not directly contradict the revenue growth Polymarket reported.

What operational disruptions preceded the cuts?

The reorganization follows two security incidents involving third-party providers. On Oct. 29, Polymarket temporarily halted international trading after a third-party provider was compromised. The company said trading resumed later that day and pledged to reimburse affected traders.

Earlier, in June, a vendor compromise saw malicious code injected into Polymarket's website. The company said it removed the affected software and would refund impacted users. Both incidents tested the platform's operational resilience at a moment when it was scaling toward its current revenue pace.

The restructuring suggests Polymarket is consolidating its cost base under new leadership while revenue accelerates but market share lags. Whether VanderZanden's growth organization can close the volume gap with Kalshi — whose parlays product has more than doubled its quarterly turnover — will define the competitive picture through the end of the year.