Polymarket has fired a high government who was intently allied with CEO Shayne Coplan – the newest upheaval at the prediction market giant as it grapples with growing pains, The Post has discovered.
Matthew Modabber – who has served as Polymarket’s chief advertising officer since January 2024 – has been ousted following an inside probe that started earlier this yr over a string of headline-grabbing incidents that have sparked concern among the company’s buyers, sources said.
Those included a reported scheme in which Modabber’s crew allegedly constructed a faux webpage to promote staged videos of customers making money off phony trades – a sham that was uncovered in a June expose by the Wall Street Journal and which triggered an investigation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The investigation is ongoing and no wrong-doing has been established.
Polymarket informed the Journal at the time it was “committed to maintaining accurate, fair, and transparent markets,” including that it plans to conduct a complete audit of energetic promotional content material.
One of the insiders said Polymarket is finalizing Modabber’s separation settlement and that both events have maintained mutual respect for one another.
A Polymarket spokeswoman declined to remark and Modabber didn’t reply to The Post’s request for remark.
Modabber’s ouster was sophisticated by the reality that he has been a close confidante of 28-year-old Coplan, who turned the nation’s youngest billionaire after Polymarket exploded in recognition following the 2024 presidential election, sources informed The Post.
In conversations with The Post, insiders have described Modabber as an government who makes impulsive selections that have turned into public relations nightmares. But disciplining Modabber had proved difficult because of his buddy-buddy relationship with Coplan.
The duo were friends at the Beacon School – a prestigious public high college in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen – and a number of sources say they’ve been “thick as thieves” during the meteoric rise of Polymarket, which gives wagers on everything from sports activities, the climate, the Oscars and superstar breakups.
One source informed The Post that Coplan was “irate” and even threatened to terminate members of the legal crew that pushed for the firing – though he later conceded that parting methods with Modabber is best for the company.
Coplan didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Matthew Modabber (left) and Shayne Coplan attend Polymarket at the DNC at the Waldorf Astoria Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, in 2024. Matthew Reeves/BFA.com / Shutterstock
According to sources, Polymarket’s board – consisting of Coplan, crypto investor Nick Tomaino, the highly effective company lawyer Alex Spiro and an unidentified companion at Peter Thiel’s investment firm Founders Fund – in the end concluded in current weeks that Modabber was getting in the means of the company’s bid to shed is scrappy startup image as it eyes a doable IPO.
According to his LinkedIn web page, Modabber was “employee #11” at Polymarket, building the company’s each day quantity from $300,000 to “mid 9-figure daily volume via digital growth hacks”. He also claims to have “Built and led a 50+ person team across marketing, partnerships, and growth.”
Polymarket permits customers to wager on everything from sports activities, the climate and the Oscars to superstar breakups. NurPhoto via Getty Images
But over the previous yr, an inside rift widened at the company between loyalists to Coplan and Modabber and other staff and buyers who considered Modabber as a free cannon and a “huge liability” who was “wreaking havoc” on the company’s makes an attempt to “grow up,” sources beforehand informed The Post.
In specific, Polymarket insiders said Modabber hasn’t helped as Coplan beforehand raised issues with his own conduct, including screaming at the workplace and spreading unsubstantiated intercourse rumors about the co-founders of archrival Kalshi.
“You can only have so many crazy people at the top of a company,” one of the sources said.
A Polymarket spokesman beforehand denied that Coplan has unfold sexual rumors about Kalshi’s co-founders. The spokesperson added that Kalshi has stoked tensions between the two corporations for years which has in the end led to such allegations.
Polymarket’s legal crew – led by Neal Kumar who joined Polymarket last yr after more than eight years with elite white-shoe law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher – had long been involved about Modabber’s actions.
Shayne Coplan, the 28-year-old founder and CEO of Polymarket. Matthew Reeves/BFA.com / Shutterstock
Company attorneys particularly informed Modabber to stop the advertising scheme which marketed faux trades nicely before it was made public in June, according to a source.
At one level, sources said that some Polymarket staff had even grown suspicious of Modabber’s cozy relationship with web influencers including Clavicular, identified for his weird “looksmaxxing” advice that has included suggesting followers hit themselves in the face with a hammer to get a more chiseled jawline.
Polymarket has provided betting markets involving Clavicular – including which nations he would go to next.
Earlier this yr, the pair were caught on video partying at a nightclub and Modabber appeared to stop mid-sentence when he realized their dialog was being recorded. It couldn’t be discovered whether the episode contributed to Modabber’s firing.
Matthew Modabber, Polymarket CMO, proper, is seen with Clavicular in a body from a YouTube video. Clavicular / KIck
Insiders said Polymarket’s review also examined Modabber’s reported use of a personal PayPal account – registered to an e mail for a Salad House, an Italy-based salad chain he co-founded – to pay influencers to promote Polymarket, typically without disclosure of the paid partnership, as detailed in a June Politico article.
Internet influencer Clavicular. Some Polymarket staff had grown suspicious of Modabber’s cozy relationship with Clavicular. SMG/SMG via ZUMA Press Wire / Shutterstock
At the time, a Polymarket spokesperson declined to reply questions from Politico about the company’s strategy for partnering with influencers, its insurance policies for disclosing those offers on social media, or why Modabber used a personal account for the transactions.
Investors have not too long ago taken a more energetic position in trying to steer Polymarket onto a more steady path. A Bloomberg report this week detailed how Peter Thiel’s enterprise firm Founders Fund last yr insisted that Polymarket shore up financial controls before it wrote the company a examine.
When Modabber joined Polymarket in 2024 he called Coplan his “dear friend” in a Linkedin post. “All gas, no breaks,” Modabber wrote in the post about Polymarket’s upward trajectory.
In August, Polymarket restructured its advertising crew, bringing on the founder of the e-scooter startup Bird to head the division – successfully a demotion for Modabber, one of the insiders said.
The Post has sought remark from Polymarket.
