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- A prominent prediction market operator recently hired a longtime Wall Street executive to spearhead its institutional growth initiatives.
- The high-profile appointment aims to bridge retail event trading with major financial firms by building scalable professional market infrastructure.
Polymarket has hired Lisa Mantil, a nearly three-decade Goldman Sachs veteran, as head of institutional growth as the prediction market operator looks to bring in more Wall Street liquidity.
The hire matters because prediction markets have grown quickly over the past year, but much of that activity has come from retail traders. Bringing in a longtime institutional markets executive suggests Polymarket is trying to deepen participation from larger professional firms as competition in the sector increases.
Mantil was most recently a Goldman partner and global head of the bank’s ETF accelerator, according to Polymarket’s announcement Tuesday. In a statement, she said, “The opportunity to join Polymarket is a rare chance to help shape an exploding asset class at an inflection point in its development.”
She added that she has “spent my career guiding institutions as they adopt new products and enter new markets” and said she plans to help Polymarket “build the institutional business and expand the role prediction markets can play across investment and risk-management strategies.”
Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan said in the release that “Lisa’s experience and relationships across the institutional world are world class.”
Hire follows broader push into the U.S. market
The appointment comes a few months after Polymarket launched its U.S. exchange in May. The company has also recently added Warren Jenson as chief financial officer, another sign it is building out its executive bench as it expands its domestic and institutional efforts.
Prediction markets have posted surging volumes over the last year, with much of the activity driven by retail users, including demand tied to sports-related offerings. Polymarket’s move to add a senior Wall Street executive appears aimed at widening that base.
Block-trade race and regulatory friction remain in focus
Institutional trading tools are becoming a bigger competitive point in the sector. Kalshi completed the first block trade in April, and Polymarket’s international platform carried out its first block trade one month later.
That international platform is not regulated in the U.S. and operates on the Polygon blockchain. Polymarket declined to comment on the status of block trades on its domestic platform.
The hiring also comes as prediction market operators continue to face regulatory disputes with states over oversight of sports-related event contracts. While that issue was not the focus of Polymarket’s announcement, it remains part of the backdrop as companies in the category try to attract more institutional capital and liquidity.
Source: As reported by news.google.com.
