Zohran Mamdani’s victory over Andrew Cuomo to become New York City’s 111th mayor drew record voter turnout and $424 million in Polymarket betting volume, leaving one trader nursing heavy losses after wagering against him.
One bettor by the handle ‘fuxfux007’ is down $969,169 after betting against Mamdani. The trader appears to be new to Polymarket, according to Polymarket Analytics, with only two bets: one against Mamdani worth $973,757 and one for him worth $42,973.
On the other side, the biggest winner of the night was a trader known as ‘debased’ who pocketed $188,487 betting on Mamdani.
In the end, Polymarket correctly predicted the election’s outcome, aligning with polls. Still, it wasn’t without controversy: billionaire Bill Ackman claimed prediction markets were being rigged with malicious orders to make it look like Mamdami’s chances were higher than expected.
Those claims echo last year’s U.S. election debate, when mainstream outlets accused Polymarket of manipulation after a French trader’s multimillion-dollar wagers inflated Donald Trump’s odds.
At the time, experts told CoinDesk that attempts to rig prices were short-lived and mostly self-correcting, since arbitrage and liquidity from professional firms quickly remove bad pricing.
Traders took the same position on the eve of the New York election, with some pointing out that a bet on Mamdani in the days before polls opened was effectively a guaranteed bond with 5% interest.
