Polymarket launches institute to fund academic prediction market research
Polymarket launched the Polymarket Institute on Tuesday, July 29, a research initiative that will fund independent academic work on prediction markets. The institute will give scholars access to Polymarket's trading data to study forecasting, market design, and AI. Specific funding amounts and initial grantees were not disclosed. The move follows a similar academic-data effort by Kalshi, its CFTC-regulated rival. Polymarket described the initiative as first-of-its-kind and aimed at advancing the science of prediction markets.
Academic access to Polymarket's data turns its trading history into a reputation asset that Kalshi cannot easily match. Researchers studying forecasting accuracy and market design will publish findings that cite Polymarket as the source, embedding its brand in policy and finance literature for years. That matters because regulators and institutional allocators lean on academic validation when deciding which venues deserve capital or favorable treatment.
Kalshi has pursued its own scholarly partnerships, so the race is now on for which platform's dataset becomes the default in peer-reviewed work. Polymarket's larger volume gives it an edge in sample size, but Kalshi's earlier start means it may already have relationships with key researchers. The platform that dominates academic citations will shape how lawmakers and risk managers understand prediction-market utility.
Polymarket deepens its data-licensing push after already supplying Eventual with the regulated market data behind its new media venture.