Reporter says Polymarket bettors threatened him

Sometimes the danger for conflict correspondents comes from gamblers. The Times of Israel war reporter Emanuel Fabian revealed in an article yesterday that people tried to intimidate him into changing a story about a recent Iranian missile strike so they could win a bet on the prediction market Polymarket. 

After the journalist broke the news of an Iranian ballistic missile hitting an open area near the Israeli town Beit Shemesh on March 10, he began receiving threats from bettors accusing him of misreporting the incident. The DM mob claimed an interceptor missile fragment caused the explosion captured on video.

Polyracket attempt

Fabian, who stands by his reporting, realized that the people attempting to cow him into issuing a correction had skin in the game beyond worrying about media accuracy:

• He discovered the threats (and bribe offers) were coming from people who bet on Polymarket that an Iranian projectile wouldn’t strike Israel on March 10 without being intercepted—a market with over $14 million in trades.
• After Fabian reported the harassment to the police and to Polymarket, the platform said it banned the accounts of those involved for violating its rules.

It’s just the latest allegation…of prediction market foul play. An Israel Defense Forces reservist was recently indicted for using classified information to place Polymarket bets, as the prediction market and its rival Kalshi work to crack down on insider trading.—SK