Polymarket, a prediction market website that allows users to bet on future events including elections and sports, is lobbying EU regulators and the UK's Financial Conduct Authority to be classified as a financial services platform rather than a gambling service. This reclassification would allow the company to avoid gambling regulations and overturn bans that Spain and France have already imposed, which were issued because Polymarket currently lacks the required gambling licences to operate in those countries.

Polymarket has held discussions with the European Commission, ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority), and FCA chief Nikhil Rathi, seeking regulation under MiFID (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive) rules instead. However, ESMA has shown little enthusiasm, recently warning that prediction markets are "rife with insider trading"—concerns backed by recent cases involving a Google employee, three political candidates and a White House staff member trading on confidential information. The company also faces allegations of paying social media influencers to post fabricated betting videos as advertisements, with roughly half of the "winning" bets shown having actually lost in reality.