Deputy Editor
Popular poker cash game stream Hustler Casino Live (HCL) announced in an X post that it has entered into “a major new partnership” with Polymarket.
“This is the start of something huge,” the post says.
Nothing else was revealed, and neither company released any press material regarding the move. Polymarket simply retweeted the post.
The prediction provider, set to return to the U.S. very soon, also announced a partnership with the UFC last week. Polymarket appears to be working diligently to make an immediate splash in its U.S. re-entry, competing with Kalshi and, soon, online sportsbooks like DraftKings that are entering the prediction space.
Poker, Prediction Markets Intersect Again
Given the explosion of interest in prediction markets and the fact that poker makes a natural partner industry with gambling and gambling-adjacent products, it was inevitable that some crossover would occur.
Poker fans got an initial taste of such crossover when Daniel Negreanu announced his partnership with Kalshi. Negreanu’s posts about Kalshi have tailed off in recent weeks. He fired off a few marketing tweets in October but has been largely quiet on that front in November. Negreanu initially announced a huge promotional giveaway of a roughly $30,000 World Series of Poker Paradise package.
Polymarket also made poker headlines in October. A market there appeared to spoil the result of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship.
Will Poker Fans See, Bet on HCL Results?
The partnership between Polymarket and HCL has obvious utility. Fans of the poker stream may soon have the opportunity to bet on the results of the streamed games. That setup could bear obvious fruit for both sides.
Polymarket gains exposure in the poker space to an audience highly receptive to its product. Polymarket’s initial competitive strategy appears to be to drastically undercut its competitors’ pricing. Poker players, an infamously price-sensitive bunch at times, may gravitate to that sort of offering.
Meanwhile, HCL gets to engage its audience further by creating betting markets around its streams. That has the potential to both grow the bottom line numbers and keep viewers invested in the outcome for longer as the bettors sweat the results.
Betting on poker results has been a time-honored side hustle for players for about as long as the game itself has existed. The potential problem when it comes to live streams is the same as it was for the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Because streams are broadcast on a delay, the risk of insider trading is significant.
Still, “gambling on gamblers” is a popular pastime in the poker world. Crossbooks, in which the players themselves book each other’s wins and losses, are the most obvious example. Crossbooking is relatively commonplace in both poker tournaments and cash games.
For fans and viewers, chances to bet on poker outcomes have been more limited. In certain years where the Rio hosted the WSOP, the sportsbook there posted betting markets for the main event final table. Offshore sportsbooks also offered such wagers. Legal sportsbooks often have a limited ability to do so because of regulatory restrictions.
Prediction markets, which operate outside of state regulatory bounds, provide bettors the chance to wager on poker legally for the time being.
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