Polymarket Applies to Add Parlays to its Prediction Markets
Jesse M. Cox Published 22/05/2026
Polymarket is seeking to make an expansion into parlay plays with its sports-event contract offerings through the company's U.S. prediction market site. The company applied to its federal regulator, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), looking for approval to make this addition.
These proposed contracts would plan to combine multiple predictions from sports-event contracts into a single outcome-based market. Critics of this proposal insist that it is providing yet another sign that there's really no difference between a federally regulated sports-event contract offered by a prediction market and a state-regulated sports wager from a sports betting site.
Will This Polymarket Move Further Blur The Lines Between Sports Betting and Prediction Markets?
One side says toe-mah-to. The other side says to-mate-o. This is about the current location of the debate between prediction market sports-event contracts and a sports wager through a sports betting site.
While insisting that they aren't sports betting, operators of prediction market sites continue to strive to make their sites resemble sports betting.
The latest step in that direction comes from Polymarket. The world's largest prediction market company is asking for approval from the CFTC to begin offering parlay wagering on its sports-event contracts.
Only they aren't calling these plays parlays. No, the official name given to the event contract in the application is Combinatoric Athletic Outcome Contracts (CAOC).
If It Walks Like A Duck . . .
Here's how Polymarket is outlining the definition of its CAOCs in the application that the company has on file with the CFTC:
Polymarket would be creating event contracts that would connect two or more underlying sports events. All legs connected in the CAOC would need to come in for the event contract to close as a winner. If even one leg fails, the entire event contract is a loser, and the contract expires as worthless.
As the actual filing reads: "Every outcome must be satisfied for the Contract to resolve to $1.00. The Contract resolves to $1.00 if and only if every leg is satisfied. If any single leg is not satisfied, the Contract resolves to $0.00, regardless of the outcomes of any remaining unsettled legs."
Sure sounds just like a sports betting parlay.
Technically, Polymarket Doesn't Need CFTC Permission
Since the Polymarket contract with the CFTC is self-certified, the company isn't necessarily requiring permission from the federal regulator to add these types of event contracts to the offerings on the company's site. Industry insiders are seeing the application as more of a statement of intent from Polymarket to the CFTC, informing the regulator of its plans to add CAOC offerings. Polymarket plans to begin providing the CAOC option almost immediately.
This move is certainly to add fuel to the fire in the ongoing battle by states to have sports-event contracts declared as nothing more than illegal sports betting. Several states are in court battles over this exact phrasing with the CFTC and the prediction market sites.
Polymarket's main rival, Kalshi, introduced its own form of parlays last year. They are calling them combos.
Why the prediction market sites want to have parlays as part of their packages is easy to decipher. These types of plays are huge moneymakers for the sites, just as they are for sportsbooks.
Kalshi players lost about $117 million on combo players from January 1 through April 30 of this year. This is according to research conducted by Sportico.