Polymarket lobbies EU and UK for MiFID financial services status
Polymarket has opened a lobbying campaign to persuade UK and EU regulators to classify its event contracts as financial products under MiFID rather than as gambling. The push targets a unified European framework that would supplant fragmented national betting laws. The effort faces reported resistance from regulators and comes as the platform expands beyond its US CFTC designation following its 2025 acquisition of licensed exchange QCEX.
A MiFID win would give Polymarket a single EU passport instead of fifteen or more national gambling licenses, cutting compliance cost and time to market by years. The push lands directly against ESMA's recent warning that Polymarket lacks EU authorization, so the platform is now asking for the very status the regulator says it does not have.
A financial classification would also trigger the EU's retail-participation restrictions, potentially locking out everyday traders in exchange for institutional legitimacy. Kalshi faces the same cross-Atlantic squeeze: Missouri's halt order and Texas's legislative scrutiny multiply at home while Europe hardens. Polymarket must now spend to fight on two continents before any revenue justifies the footprint. The first regulator to grant or reject MiFID treatment will set the template every peer copies.
Polymarket's European lobbying joins a three-front regulatory siege on prediction markets alongside ESMA's fraud-linked authorization warning and Missouri's halt order, as operators fight to defend venue access on both sides of the Atlantic.