Polymarket has been kicked out of yet another European market, as Portuguese media report that the predictions platform has been issued a cease and desist notice.
Renascença and the SAPO online portal’s news service have both reported that the Gaming Regulation and Inspection Service (SRIJ) issued a cease and desist order last week.
However, the site remained active earlier this week and so internet services providers were subsequently asked to assist in blocking its access to Portuguese consumers.
According to SAPO, two of the country’s biggest internet service providers, MEO and Vodafone Portugal, have subsequently blocked Polymarket’s local domain.
Anyone visiting the site now sees the message: “The site you are trying to access is blocked in compliance with a court or administrative order.”
The SRIJ’s decision stems from Polymarket allowing Portuguese customers to bet on predictions on the outcome of the forthcoming presidential election, to be held on 8 February.
“The website is not authorised to offer betting in Portugal, and under national law, betting on political events or happenings, whether national or international, is not permitted,” the statement read, as reported by Renascença.
Will Polymarket be bothered?
Polymarket was first set up back in 2020, founded by Shayne Coplan, who continues to head up the company as CEO. It quickly ran into regulatory trouble in the US, however, finding itself at loggerheads with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
A deal between Polymarket and the CFTC saw the firm block access to Americans from 2022 onwards, leaving it to focus on international markets. However, it has continued to come up against regulatory hurdles in Europe, with the Portuguese block coming after similar developments in France, Belgium and Romania.
The company may have been overly fazed, however. Predictions markets have grown in popularity in the US as a nationwide product, in comparison to betting which is regulated state-by-state – and with betting in California and Texas remaining illegal.
The CFTC’s stance on predictions has also mellowed under Donald Trump, in contrast to under Joe Biden. In the new regulatory and market environment, Polymarket was able to gain re-entry to its home nation via acquiring CFTC-licensed clearing house QCX in July last year.
QCX has subsequently rebranded as Polymarket US, and the company continues to expand by acquiring new customers and signing external partnerships – the latest of this being a US-focused one with UK-based sports streaming platform DAZN.
With its growth in the highly lucrative US prediction space in good stead, being kicked out of smaller European markets is probably not a big cause of concern for Polymarket. How long the favourable regulatory environment seen under Trump’s second administration will last is anyone’s guess, however.